A file photo of TMC MP Saket Gokhale with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Credit: X/@Saket Gokhale
New Delhi: TMC leader Saket Gokhale on Friday said the Centre was "imposing" Hindi over English and other regional languages in government business and claimed that this was against the federal structure.
Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Gokhale demanded that English must be used for government business.
The TMC member pointed out that, at the start of the current Budget session of the Meghalaya assembly, it was announced that the Governor would deliver his address to the House in Hindi.
The BJP leaders in Meghalaya supported this announcement, saying Hindi is our national language, he said.
Gokhale said the official language of the state of Meghalaya is English.
"Honourable Governor of Meghalaya choosing to address the assembly in Hindi instead of the state's official language English is nothing but a brazen Hindi imposition, and an attempt to undermine the linguistic pride of Meghalaya," he alleged.
Gokhale said the government has recently passed three new criminal laws in Parliament and these laws have been given very complicated Hindi names.
"Let me remind the House here, that outside of North India, Hindi is not the native language of crores of Indians," he said.
Gokhale said, "Our Constitution chose to retain English as an official language along with Hindi".
However, the attempts by the current government to forcibly impose Hindi which is barely spoken by 46 per cent of the population on the rest of India is a matter of shame, Gokhale alleged.
He said there is absolutely no respect for local languages and every new law, every new name that this government gives is in Hindi.
"Are languages of the West, the South and the East, not important in this country. Do regional languages have no meaning," he said.
Gokhale urged that English must be used for government business that extends to all of India, including non-Hindi speaking states.
"When our Constitution mandates, both Hindi and English as official languages, the imposition of Hindi over English and vernacular languages by the government is an affront to a federal structure and so shocking disregard for states that do not speak Hindi," Gokhale said.
After his remarks, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar told Gokhale that he has taken oath under the Constitution.
The Chairman said that Article 351 of the Constitution provides that it shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of the Hindi language.
Dhankhar told Gokhale that he ignored these provisions under the Constitution.
"We have a culture of very rich languages. We are proud of our languages. Our languages have even global impact. They have great culture. All I am saying is we must have a consensual approach," the chairman said.