Editor,
While defending the Governor who delivered his speech in the Assembly in Hindi, some have called Hindi the national language. This is factually wrong. Hindi is not the national language. It is one of the official languages of India. Clause 1 of Article 343 of the Constitution of India states, “The official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagari script.” The Gujarat High Court in 2010 judgement stated that Hindi is not the country’s national language. The court further said, “there is nothing on record to suggest that any provision has been made or order issued declaring Hindi as a national language of the country.”
The Eight Schedule to the Constitution of India also states that the official languages of India includes Bengali, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Sindhi, Telugu among other languages thereby making 22 languages the official languages of India till date.
Further the Constitution provides for the use of other languages as the official language of states. Article 345 of the Constitution states, “The Legislature of a State may by law adopt any one or more of the languages in use in the State or Hindi as the language or languages to be used for all or any of the official purposes of that State: Provided that, until the Legislature of the State otherwise provides by law, the English language shall continue to be used for those official purposes within the State for which it was being used immediately before the commencement of this Constitution.”
In Meghalaya the official languages are English, Khasi and Garo. And in the Assembly a tradition has been in place, based on practicality, to always use English as the official language. So when the Governor chose to disrespectfully break this tradition there is bound to be opposition and protests. And the Opposition has been mild. Imagine if a similar situation is created in Tamil Nadu! The Governor’s speech in the Assembly is not to be taken at face value. There is more to it than meets the eye. As a reaction two legislators spoke Khasi and one was permitted to make a point in Garo. If the Governor persists in speaking Hindi in the house, I suggest that MLAs from Jaintia Hills to speak Pnar, those from West and South West Khasi Hills to speak in their mother tongues, Maram or Lyngngam and those from Baghmara area to use Atong in the Assembly. Then we will truly celebrate Meghalaya’s diversity and richness.
Yours etc.,
Albert Thyrniang
Tura
Religious terror takes its toll
Editor,
The Indian foreign ministry should have chosen its words with more sensitivity while dealing with the relatives of the 39 Mosul hostages. As a matter of fact, false assurances can only add insult to injury. It is indeed true that the Government cannot say that the hostages are dead without proof. Also, following the same logic, it should not have assured the family members of the victims that the men were safe without proof either. Now, what is the common link of all those 39 men who were kidnapped and then killed in Iraq? We see that all of them are workers who went to Iraq from India in search of livelihoods. As a matter of fact, there is always a common link between all the victims of hate crimes. The poor – a labourer, a cobbler, a butcher, a mason, a carpenter, a hawker ~ are easy prey for religious terrorists. It has been reported that over 80 persons who have traditionally done carcass removal in rural India, were killed by cow vigilantes.
Khokon Sikder, a carpenter hailing from Nadia district of West Bengal and Afrazul Khan, a mason hailing from Malda district of West Bengal had fallen prey to religious terrorists ~ one in Iraq and the other in India. The former had gone to Iraq for livelihood and was killed with other 38 workers by rabid religious terrorists namely ISIS. The latter went to Rajasthan for the same reason and struggled hard to support his family with a daily income of about Rs 400 to Rs 500 and was hacked to death and burnt by a lone assassin who made inflammatory comments laced with religious hatred. Indeed, work is the religion of both Khokon and Afrazul and hatred is the religion of their killers.
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,
Kolkata
Responsible legislators!
Editor,
At the outset I would like to congratulate the MDA government for the successful conduct of the first part of their first Assembly session which held from March 16 – 23, 2018 and also for presenting their maiden budget. This was possible because of the active support and the participation by the Opposition party. Unlike other states where the Assembly cannot be conducted for many days as the legislators from the Opposition do not cooperate, our state is blessed with sensible legislators both from the treasury and the opposition benches who maintain the decorum and the discipline of the Assembly. Our State takes pride in many things. To mention a few, we take pride in being the cleanest region in entire Asia, being a region with no dowry culture, being a region receiving heaviest rainfall etc. We can also take pride in being one of the most disciplined Assemblies in the entire country and this is possible because of our legislators who maintains the discipline and have a healthy debate for the development of our State. We got to know through the newspapers that this time most of the legislators were actively involved and participated in the Assembly sessions. They were not mere spectators but engaged in asking questions and the others in replying to the queries posed to them. It is indeed great to know that the House had discussions regarding youth employment and devising ways to create employment opportunities for the youth. There were discussion about improving the quality of education and bringing back the tag of Shillong as an educational hub. The infrastructure of the State, waste management, health facilities etc are some of the areas that were discussed in the house. If both the Treasury and the Opposition bench can deliver what had been discussed in the house and continue to do the same then our state Meghalaya will be one of the most developed state in the near future.
Yours etc.,
Anil Singh Roka,
Via email