SHILLONG, May 21: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, on Saturday, allayed fears about Centre making Hindi compulsory till Class X asserting that “nobody is imposing any language” even as he pointed out that spreading misinformation on this subject should be avoided.
“Nobody is imposing any language on anybody. I am small public practitioner and I have to go by Prime Minister’s policy statement and this is the policy statement of the Government of India,” he said.
Reminding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had emphasised that under National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, all local languages of India are sacred and important, and all are national language, he said, “Whether Khasi, Jaintia, Garo, Assamese, Bengali, Telegu, Tamil, Punjabi, Marathi and others all are national language.”
It may be mentioned that earlier, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said 22,000 Hindi teachers have been recruited in the eight Northeastern states, and that the Hindi would be made compulsory up to Class 10.
Despite attempts by the State BJP to clear air on the matter stating that it was only a suggestion made by Shah in his capacity as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee, the opposition to the supposed move of making Hindi compulsory in the Northeast grew louder in the state.
From many political leaders to student body in the state, all detested the Union Home minister’s statement.
While the Opposition AITC leader condemned the Centre for not considering the sentiments of the people, the North East Students’ Organisation (NESO), a conglomeration of student bodies of the North East, took umbrage over the Centre’s supposed decision while contending that the move will be detrimental to indigenous languages and will give vent to disharmony.
Close to 16,000 graduate
At the XXVII Convocation of NEHU, the Union Minister conferred degrees upon students of the university at the ceremony which was held at NEHU’s Shillong campus.
A total of 15,955 degrees were conferred on Saturday during the convocation ceremony, out of which 117 were PhD, eight were M.Phil, 1,559 were postgraduate degrees and 14,271 were Bachelor’s degree.
Speaking at the convocation ceremony, Pradhan congratulated all the passing out students and extended best wishes to them for their future endeavours while urging them to participate in the knowledge-based revolution of becoming job providers.
“Our universities are melting pot of ideas, innovation and aspirations and universities should be a breeding ground for research — research for welfare of society & mankind and for furthering ease-of-living,” he added.
Pradhan lauded Chief Minister Conrad Sangma for giving special focus on early childhood care and education sectors in the state in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The chief minister urged the graduating students to explore and take calculative risks in life in order to reach the next level.
“Do not get demoralised by failure and do not let success get on to your head,” the CM told students. State Education Minister Lahkmen Rymbui, Vice-Chancellor of NEHU Prof PS Shukla, faculty and students of NEHU were also present at the event.
Later, the Union Education Minister visited Umsning Presbyterian School.