Haryana education minister calls Hindi national language, pushes to end English in department communication
CHANDIGARH: Haryana Education Minister Mahipal Dhanda said all work under his department should be done in Hindi as a majority of the state's population speaks the language and it was the "national language".
Speaking to reporters in Kurukshetra on Wednesday, Dhanda said people will benefit if government correspondence was done in Hindi.
India does not have a national language. Hindi is among the 22 official languages of the country.
Addressing mediapersons during an event on Narendra Modi's 11 years as prime minister, Dhanda said, "Hindi is our national language. Why should we work in English? I don't know English...though I can understand it somewhat....
In our state, 90 per cent of the people are far removed from English."
Dhanda said the vast majority of people will not understand government correspondence if it is done in English. "We cannot do injustice to 90-95 per cent people for 5-7 per cent people."
"So, I said my department will do all work in Hindi so that everyone understands what is written. I would prefer it if all work in Haryana is done in Hindi," the minister said.
Later in a post in Hindi on X, Dhanda said, "Hindi is our mother tongue and also our identity. We are proud of our mother tongue. It will be my endeavour that Hindi gets respect and priority in every field and Hindi is implemented everywhere."
Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala reacted to the minister's remarks in a post on X on Thursday.
He said, "I agree with Mahipal Dhanda that Hindi is our national language.
We are proud of it and if someone does not know English, then there is no shame or problem in it".
"But as the education minister of Haryana, his statement that our youth, our next generations do not need to learn English along with Hindi is not correct. In this way we will deprive them from progressing in the world. There should be no hesitation in knowing and learning English and there is no need to oppose it unnecessarily," Surjewala posted in Hindi on X.
Surjewala said English is a "link language" all over the world, especially in south India. Knowing English opens countless doors to employment as well as technology and science, increasing possibilities, the Congress leader said.
"More than one million people from Delhi and the country work in Gurugram alone and most of them are from outside Haryana. Reason - Be it a call centre or a software company, knowing fluent English is mandatory to get a job.
"If the youth of Haryana, who are very talented, are well versed in English, then it will help them in getting good employment in their state. This is the criterion for good employment in IT, software, technology companies of Pune, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram," he added.
In the age of internet, artificial intelligence, advanced engineering, robotics, solar and hydrogen revolution, the whole world is changing rapidly, Surjewala said.
"Knowledge, science, technology and innovation are the keys to the future. The link language for all these is English. Therefore, it is important that we train our youth in English along with Hindi. This is important for the state as well as for the future of the youth," he said.
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