Hindi in schools: Sapkal dubs it BJP-RSS agenda to sideline Marathi, end linguistic diversity
'This is not merely about a language policy. The BJP-RSS agenda is to erase all other languages and impose Hindi hegemony across the nation. But we will not allow Marathi to be throttled. This deceitful design will be defeated. We respect Hindi as a language, but coercion is unacceptable. Marathi is not just our language. It is our identity and way of life,' Sapkal told reporters.
On June 17, the Maharashtra government issued a GR making Hindi the third language, though not mandatory, for students of Classes 1 to 5 in English and Marathi medium schools.
Mumbai, Jun 28 (PTI) The Maharashtra government's decision to introduce Hindi in schools from Class I is a conspiracy by the BJP-RSS to sideline Marathi and eliminate linguistic diversity enshrined in the Constitution, alleged state Congress chief Harshwardhan Sapkal on Saturday.
He said the Congress has reached out to prominent literary figures through letters asking them to put up a united front to ensure the state government is forced to revoke the order on Hindi.
Accusing the ruling BJP of duplicity, Sapkal questioned why Hindi is not a compulsory language in neighbouring Gujarat.
'Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and (minister) Chandrashekhar Bawankule must speak about these double standards,' he said.
Sapkal said all sections of society must take part in the protest against the Hindi order as it is a 'cultural struggle and not just a political battle'.
The opposition parties have accused the ruling BJP of pursuing a hidden agenda through the three-language policy to give precedence to Hindi over regional languages, including Marathi. PTI MR BNM
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
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Looking at Abu Abraham's famous cartoon - published some six months into Emergency - of Ali Ahmed stretching out from a Rashtrapati-tub to return pen and paper to an outstretched hand 'symbol' behind the door, I suitably-bootably wonder whether such a cartoon would have passed today. Not so much for its critique of an obsequious nominal head of state, as much for its depiction of a president in his birthday suit. So, even being the luckiest guy to have the least authoritarian of mothers, my mum's birthday is inextricably linked with Emergency. As Srinath Raghavan's illuminating new biography, Indira Gandhi and the Years That Transformed India, reveal, an emergency under Article 352 was already in place since December 1971 during the Bangladesh War. But Mrs G wanted a new emergency - her One Big Beautiful Emergency, if you will. Much before June 12, 1975, when Allahabad High Court found her guilty of corruption in the March 1971 general election - a case filed by Raj Narain of Samyukta Socialist Party, whom she defeated by more than 1 lakh votes at Rae Bareli - Gandhi 'came to regard the dangers posed by the RSS' activism as linked to an American-supported attempt at destabilising her government'. Assassination of her aide, cabinet minister, and Congress fundraiser LN Mishra in January 1975 didn't help matters. Gandhi wanted to crack down on RSS, and Ananda Margis, by invoking an all-encompassing emergency even before the Allahabad High Court verdict. As Raghavan reminds us, 'Far from being lawful, the declaration of emergency on 25 June 1975 was a coup d'etat: in the original sense of the term a 'master-stroke of the state,' whose signature elements were surprise and secrecy.' Like every year, the media and its content-providers rolled out thoughts on the Emergency this year, too - the one day that LK Advani is taken out of the freezer and thawed for his 'bend-crawl' aphorism. But for all the righteous horror poured on 'the day democracy died', 50 years on, the Emergency has a new function: as insurance against any charge that India today could possibly be anything other than a model democracy. One extremely handy thing about any 'darkest chapter in history' is that it allows 'dark chapters' to come across as gentle gambols in the park. Take the Jewish holocaust. After that particular Nazi pol science field study, you seriously reckon Israel can be charged of genocide for its 'tough love' with Gaza? With countries like Germany falling for it faster than you can say, 'Fast and the Fuhrious', the upper-cased 'Holocaust' is brought out like garlic and crucifix to drive away any accusation of lower-cased 'holocaust' being carried out by Israeli ghetto-blasters. The same principle holds with our Emergency. Mention any current dodge'n'damage to democratic institutions by the state - whether GoI or state governments - and 'Emergency' is trotted out like Asrani with a toothbrush moustache. Umar Khalid, almost five years in Tihar without a trial, charges against whom have yet to framed in court? 'Pfft. That's nothing compared to what happened during the Emergency'. The other standard rebuttal being, 'Have you seen Pakistan?' Which is why, after 'doing the dishes' with Pontius Pilate diligence, and wishing Ma on Thursday, I realised why so many people are horrified by Donald Trump, his ICEmen, executive orders, sending military to quell protestors, using social media telepathy to weed out bad apples from entering America, his sycophantasmagoric coterie... Poor things, they have no Indira's Emergency to measure Trump's Urgency against, and find phew-relief like we do. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. 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