Ardent wants state govt to urge Centre to appoint governors who can communicate in a language the MLAs of the state understand
By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Feb 16: The Voice of the People Party wants the state government to tell the Centre to ensure that governors who can communicate with the MLAs in the language they understand should be appointed for Meghalaya in the future.
VPP chief and Nongkrem MLA, Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit said this after Governor Phagu Chauhan delivered his customary address in Hindi.
Chauhan addressed the House while sitting due to his health and spoke for about 10 minutes, deviating from the tradition of governors delivering lengthy addresses. The first day of the Budget session of the Assembly started about 8 minutes late.
Taking note of the matter, Basaiawmoit said this was the first time that a governor had addressed the House for a very short time.
“Even though the office of the Speaker arranged translation for the interest of viewers outside the House, we must have a governor who can address us in English,” he said.
The VPP leader said the state government should urge the Centre to send governors who can communicate with the MLAs in the language they understand.
He lamented the short duration of the Budget session, which denied the VPP an opportunity to raise several important issues in the House.
Earlier, Chauhan ended his address in the Assembly after reading a few paragraphs of the text in Hindi as he was unwell. He spoke a few words in Khasi and Garo too.
He greeted the members of the House with “Nga ai khublei ia phi baroh kiba don ha kane ka por” (I thank all who are present here today).
Assembly Speaker Thomas Sangma announced that the remaining portion of the speech of the Governor should be considered as read.
The translated copies of the speech in English were distributed to the members of the House.
Quelling all voices of dissent, the Assembly, in a first, provided live translation of the governor’s customary address from Hindi to English. Attempts are being made to provide simultaneous translations of Khasi, Jaintia, and Garo languages from the next Assembly session.
“There would be some flaws as this is for the first time the Assembly has provided a live translation of the governor’s address in English,” Sangma said.
He said the translation, far from achieving 100% accuracy, was done manually. “In the next six months, we will introduce live translations from Khasi, Jaintia, and Garo languages to English,” he added.
He also said experts from the National Law University have been engaged for the job and it will be done with the help of artificial intelligence.
Regarding the opposition to the governor’s address in Hindi, the Speaker said: “Hindi is one of the official languages of the country. As a civilised society and known as one of the most recognised assemblies for maintaining its decorum, I think we should respect all the languages in the country, not just Hindi.”