Hindi companion of all Indian languages rather than an adversary: Amit Shah
Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday said Hindi can never be an adversary to any Indian language, but it is a companion to all. Shah also said that as far as the country is concerned, language is not just a medium of communication, it is the soul of a nation. (ANI photo)
Speaking at the golden jubilee celebration of the Union home ministry's Official Language Department, Shah said Hindi is a 'companion' of other Indian languages rather than an 'adversary.'
Calling for a collaborative effort to uplift all Indian languages, Shah said that it is with the collaboration of both Hindi and other Indian languages that we can uplift self-pride using languages,' he said.
He urged language experts to contribute to the digital 'Hindi Shabd Sindhu' dictionary and assured that all newly incorporated words will be widely promoted.
Also Read:India never bows to dictatorship: Shah on Emergency
Shah emphasised that no language should be restricted from evolving and growing.
Clarifying his stance on foreign languages, Shah said, 'The foreign languages should never be opposed. But our purpose should be to glorify, speak and think in our language. A completely developed nation would only be conceptualised when our languages are glorified to express our heritage.'
He further appealed to all states to enable medical and engineering education in regional languages.
'No nation can become great by ignoring its mother tongue,' he said, noting that nearly 95% of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) constable aspirants take their exams in their native languages.
'In the last few decades, language has been used as a medium to disintegrate India, but the attempt was unsuccessful. We will ensure that our languages become a steadfast medium to integrate India and the Official Language Department will work towards it,' Shah added.
Speaking about the department, he said its primary aim was to make administration accessible in a language that citizens can understand.
'No country can preserve the culture, literature, history and social morals by separating them from their language. It is important to run the administration of any country in its own language to be able to progress based on its culture and with self-respect,' Shah said.
The Official Language Department was established in 1975 to promote the use of Hindi in government functioning and official communication.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
28 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Congress: Election Commission move to revise rolls an admission that all not well
The Congress on Thursday said the Election Commission's announcement of a special intensive revision (SIR) of the voting lists in poll-bound Bihar is a 'clear and explicit admission… that all is not well with India's electoral rolls'. Other Opposition parties, too, objected to the move, arguing that the month-long exercise will disenfranchise lakhs of vulnerable voters ahead of elections this year. The EC had said Tuesday that all existing electors in Bihar who were not on the rolls in 2003 would have to again provide documentation proving their eligibility. This was to be the beginning of a nationwide exercise. A Congress committee tasked with looking into elections said in a statement Thursday: 'In simple terms, the EC wants to discard the current electoral rolls entirely and create a fresh new electoral roll for the state… This is a clear and explicit admission by the EC that all is not well with India's electoral rolls. Exactly what the Congress party and the Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi have been repeatedly pointing out with evidence from Maharashtra.' The eight-member EAGLE committee said: 'Lakhs of Union and state government officials will now control and dictate who has correct documents and who doesn't, who gets to vote in the upcoming Bihar elections etc. This carries a huge risk of willful exclusion of voters using the power of the state machinery.' At a meeting of political parties with Bihar's Chief Electoral Officer Wednesday in Patna, representatives from the INDIA bloc — including the RJD, Congress, CPI(ML) Liberation and CPI(M) — unanimously rejected the SIR, calling it a ploy to exclude poor, rural and minority electors. RJD Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Kumar Jha told The Indian Express that the party would go to the EC. 'This is a massive exercise, and with the Bihar election notification expected in just two-and-a-half months, the timing is questionable. This process could have started much earlier. We feel very strongly that this entire exercise, is it a kind of cover? Cover to make sure that people from subaltern classes and minorities, backward and Dalits, are you going to invisibilise them?' he said. Opposition parties flagged concerns on the commission's stringent documentation requirements. The new rules set different proof thresholds by birth cohort. Voters born between July 1, 1987, and December 2, 2004, are required to provide proof of either parent's Indian citizenship, while those born after December 2, 2004, need documentation for both parents. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said the EC was 'acting like a stooge of the BJP' and asked whether the move was a backdoor attempt to implement the NRC. 'I don't understand the reason behind the EC move or the rationale behind selecting these dates. This is nothing short of a scam. I seek clarification from the Commission on whether they are trying to implement the NRC through backdoors. In fact, this looks to be more dangerous than the NRC which every political party in opposition must resist,' she told reporters. The Congress statement said the EC rules on birth certificates are 'arbitrary, whimsical and onerous on the estimated 8.1 crore eligible voters in Bihar in 2025'. CPI(ML) Liberation General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, too, drew parallels with Assam's NRC exercise and argued in a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner that completing the verification of '78 million voters' in one month was 'logically absurd and a logistical nightmare'.
Hindustan Times
42 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
India refuses to sign SCO statement over Pahalgam
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) defence ministers' meeting couldn't issue a joint communique on Thursday after India refused to endorse the document because it didn't address its terrorism-related concerns, officials aware of the matter said. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh during the SCO Defence Ministers' Meeting, in Qingdao, China. (@rajnathsingh) Defence minister Rajnath Singh, who attended the meeting at Qingdao in China, refused to sign the joint communique as it was silent on the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed but mentioned Balochistan and the hijacking of the Jaffer Express by Baloch militants in March, the officials said, asking not to be named. Pakistan's insistence on not having any reference to the Pahalgam attack, while retaining the reference to the situation in Balochistan, stymied the finalisation of a joint statement, the officials said. The SCO works by consensus and a joint communique cannot be issued if even one member state doesn't endorse it. China, the current president of the SCO, has deep military and strategic ties with Pakistan, which it strongly supported during the recent four-day clashes with India under Operation Sindoor. The operation was India's direct military response to the Pahalgam terror strike, the worst attack on civilians since the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal responded to a question about the SCO meeting's failure to issue a joint communique by tacitly pointing to Pakistan's role in the matter. 'I understand [the meet] could not adopt a joint statement. I also understand that certain member countries could not reach consensus on certain issues and hence the document could not be finalised. On our side, India wanted concerns on terrorism reflected in the document, which was not acceptable to one particular country, and therefore the statement was not adopted,' he said. A press release issued by the Indian side is 'very instructive in how we look at the threat of terrorism', he said. 'The defence minister, in his address, called upon these 11 countries to come together to fight terrorism in all its forms and manifestations... He also reiterated the need to uphold that the perpetrators, organisers, financers, sponsors of reprehensible acts of terrorism, including cross-border terrorism, need to be held accountable and brought to justice,' Jaiswal said. Singh further said SCO members must be 'in lockstep in our endeavour in strengthening stability and security in our neighborhood', he added. In his address, Singh said every act of terrorism was criminal and unjustifiable, and the bloc must unite in eliminating the menace for collective safety and security. He said India launched Operation Sindoor, exercising its right to defend itself against terrorism and pre-empt and deter further cross-border attacks. During the Pahalgam terror attack, victims were shot after they were profiled on religious identity, and the The Resistance Front --- a proxy of UN-designated terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) --- claimed responsibility for it, Singh said. 'The pattern of Pahalgam attack matches with LeT's previous terror attacks in India. India's zero tolerance for terrorism was demonstrated through its actions. We have shown that epicentres of terrorism are no longer safe and we will not hesitate to target them.' India launched the Operation Sindoor in the early hours of May 7 and struck terror and military installations in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), It triggered a four-day military confrontation with Pakistan involving fighter jets, missiles, drones, long-range weapons and heavy artillery before the two sides reached an understanding on stopping all military action on May 10. The biggest challenges faced by the region were related to peace, security and trust-deficit, with increasing radicalisation, extremism and terrorism being the root cause of these problems, Singh said. 'Peace and prosperity cannot co-exist with terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of non-state actors and terror groups. Dealing with these challenges requires decisive action.' On May 15, Singh questioned if nuclear weapons were safe in Pakistan's control and custody and demanded that its arsenal be placed under the supervision of global nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), calling the neighbour 'irresponsible and rogue'. 'It is imperative that those who sponsor, nurture and utilise terrorism for their narrow and selfish ends must bear the consequences. Some countries use cross-border terrorism as an instrument of policy and provide shelter to terrorists. There should be no place for such double standards. SCO should not hesitate to criticise such nations,' Singh said in Qingdao. Singh called for proactive steps to check the spread of radicalisation among the youth, acknowledging the significant role of the RATS (regional anti-terrorist structure --- a body under the SCO) mechanism in tackling the challenge. 'The joint statement of the Council of SCO Heads of State on 'Countering Radicalisation leading to Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism' issued during India's chairmanship symbolises our shared commitment.' SCO is a 10-nation Eurasian security and political grouping whose members include China, Russia, India, Pakistan, and Iran. Their defence ministers' meeting was held as a precursor to the annual summit of its leaders set for the autumn.
India Gazette
an hour ago
- India Gazette
Uttarakhand CM directs officials to run special campaigns to resolve pending complaints
Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], June 26 (ANI): Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has directed officials to run a special campaign to resolve complaints pending for more than 180 days in the CM Helpline 1905. Expressing displeasure, the Chief Minister issued strict instructions to the officials, stating that action would be taken against officers who failed to dispose of the cases promptly. While instructing not to close public complaints unnecessarily, he stated that more effective efforts should be made to bring the CM Helpline up to the best practices of the state. While reviewing CM Helpline 1905 in the Secretariat on Thursday, the Chief Minister directed officials to organise Tehsil Diwas across the entire state on a single day. The Chief Minister directed all District Magistrates to organise Janta Darshan, Tehsil Diwas, and BDC meetings regularly for the speedy resolution of public problems. 'Encroachment and verification campaigns should be run more effectively by the police and administration together. Work should be done rapidly towards making two villages in each district as Adarsh Gram, for this, nodal officers should be appointed in all the districts soon,' CM Dhami said. The Chief Minister directed that wherever the condition of electricity poles and transformers is bad in the state, they should be replaced immediately. 'Safety audit of all transformers should also be done. It should be ensured that there is no problem of low voltage and hanging electricity wires; if such cases are found, strict action will be taken against the concerned officers,' he said. The Chief Minister directed the officers associated with all the authorities to ensure that there is no pendency in passing the maps of people's houses. He said that the three districts that become TB-free first will be honoured. The Chief Minister praised the Transport, Agriculture, Social Welfare, Excise, and Energy Departments for their efforts in resolving complaints through the CM Helpline. The Chief Minister directed the Public Works Department, Geology and Mining, Revenue, Home, and Finance Departments to expedite the redressal of complaints further. The CM Helpline is receiving more complaints related to drinking water, street light maintenance, connections under the Jal Jeevan Mission, power cuts, and electricity bills. The Chief Minister also spoke to the complainants of the CM Helpline during the meeting. On the complaint of Upendra Singh Rawat of Uttarkashi regarding the drinking water line, the Chief Minister directed the District Magistrate of Uttarkashi to resolve his problem within a week. Alam from Haridwar had complained about street lights; his problem has been resolved. Hridesh Negi of Dehradun said that work has started on his complaint regarding the construction of a culvert. Gaurav Nautiyal of Chamoli's complaint regarding drinking water has also been resolved. Devendra's complaint about low voltage from Nainital has also been resolved. (ANI)
