SHILLONG, Sep 13: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has assured a student delegation from Meghalaya that the prolonged desire to see the inclusion of Khasi and Garo languages in the Eight Schedule will be realised.
This was assured to the Meghalaya unit of National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) in the national capital.
According to a statement on Monday, a delegation from the Meghalaya unit of NSUI, which was represented by unit president Bansharailang Pyngrope, vice president Changkam Sangma and general secretaries Mewan Pariat and Arkin Warjri, partook in the NSUI’s two-day national executive meet on September 11 and 12.
It was during this meeting, they held interactions with various Congress leaders and, during the course of talks, the members of the delegation highlighted the long-pending aspiration for the inclusion of Khasi and Garo languages in the Eight Schedule.
“In reply to this, Rahul Gandhi assured that this desire of the people will be fulfilled, but it is also essential that the people also spread the language and write more in the local language,” the statement said.
It may be mentioned that Rahul’s assurance comes as a ray of hope to many as the Centre had, back in July, ruled out constitutional recognition to the Khasi language.
“There have been demands from time to time for inclusion of Khasi in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. Central Government had received a proposal in this regard. As the evolution of dialects and languages is dynamic, influenced by socio-political developments, it is difficult to fix any criterion for languages, whether to distinguish them from dialects, or for inclusion in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India,” Union MoS for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai had said in a reply to Shillong MP Vincent H Pala’s query.
