KTR writes to PM Modi, opposes Hindi imposition

Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now Bharat Rashtra Samithi) has strongly opposed the recommendation of a Parliamentary panel that the medium of instruction in technical and non-technical higher educational institutes like IITs and Central universities should be Hindi. Stating that the recommendation was unconstitutional, party working president and IT Minister KT Rama Rao demanded that […]

Hyderabad: The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (now Bharat Rashtra Samithi) has strongly opposed the recommendation of a Parliamentary panel that the medium of instruction in technical and non-technical higher educational institutes like IITs and Central universities should be Hindi. Stating that the recommendation was unconstitutional, party working president and IT Minister KT Rama Rao demanded that the recommendation be withdrawn immediately.

The Parliamentary panel on Official language headed by union Home Minister Amit Shah had recommended that Hindi be made the medium of instruction in technical and non-technical higher education institutes such as IITs in Hindi-speaking States and in other parts of India, their respective local language. The Parliamentary committee also made over 100 recommendations including doing away with the compulsory English language question paper in the recruitment examinations and arrangements for Hindi translation of the High Courts orders in Hindi-speaking States.

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In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, Rama Rao expressed his concerns on the far reaching adverse impacts of the recommendation on current and future generations, the division it could draw between various parts of India and other crucial aspects. He said indirect imposition of Hindi was proving to be detrimental to crores of youngsters. He pointed out that students who pursue education in regional languages, were losing out on Central government job opportunities as questions in qualifying tests for the Central jobs were in Hindi, and English.

“There are around 20 Central recruitment agencies which conduct the exams in Hindi and English. The UPSC conducts 16 recruitment exams for national posts in these two languages. Job announcements from Central recruiting agencies are already scarce and the limited recruitment drives are discriminatory against the students who pursued education in regional languages. This is injustice to crores of youngsters eagerly aspiring for jobs,” he said.

The Minister requested the Prime Minister to instead conduct the exams in regional languages for the benefit of the job aspirants. He feared that the Parliamentary Committee’s recommendation could reverse the nation’s development in the highly competitive globalised world. He had also pointed out that considering a huge non-Hindi speaking population in India, the Central government’s move to make Hindi mandatory will lead to socio-economic divisions in the country.

Earlier, he tweeted that India does not have a national language and Hindi was one among the many official languages. “To impose Hindi by way of mandating in IIITs and central government recruitments, NDA government is flouting the federal spirit Indians should have a choice of language and we say no to Hindi imposition,” he tweeted.