The Hindu Business Line : Stoking embers of linguism

According to media reports, the Parliamentary secretariat is taking a negative stand on the question of allowing the Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers, Mr M. K. Alagiri, to speak in Tamil, while answering questions or participating in proceedings. This will only fuel the suspicion that has never been far below the surface of non-Hindi speaking population that sections of the power-structure in Delhi are insensitive, and even callous, with regard to the susceptibi lities of speakers of regional languages, even though they enjoy the status of being included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

Lessons of history

Apparently, these die-hard elements have forgotten the lessons of history. Rajaji who, as the Prime Minister (as the post was called) of the Madras State in 1937-39, went all out to make Hindi a compulsory subject of the school curriculum and invoked the notorious Criminal Law Amendment Act of the British colonial era against leaders, including Periyar, of the agitation against his move became himself an inveterate fighter against ‘Hindi imposition’ in the post-Independence period when he saw the indifferent treatment accorded to regional languages.

I still recall the heated observations of the then Chief Justice of Madras, P. V. Rajamannar, appearing before the C. P. Ramaswami Iyer Committee on Regionalism on September 2, 1962, that he felt as if his whole body was on fire whenever he received a communication in Hindi! Kamaraj who was a member of the Committee also pointed to the dangers of self-centredness of the North.

The DMK rode to power on the crest of the violent disturbances of 1965 in Tamil Nadu against making Hindi the sole official language on the expiry of the Constitutionally laid down period of 15 years after India became a Republic. The mindless mandarins of the Railway Ministry chose precisely that moment, when the disturbances were going on with widespread arson, destruction of public property and loss of lives, to rename the Southern Express as Dakshin Express which resulted in further conflagration. The presiding officers of both Houses of Parliament owe it to the country to display a spirit of large-hearted accommodation in the case of Mr Alagiri and similar cases that may arise in future. Legislative forums of all mature democracies invariably treat linguistic groups within their polity with broad-minded consideration.

For instance, a member elected to British Parliament or the US Congress is at liberty to speak in his native tongue (say, Welsh or Spanish) so long as he hands over a translation in English. Similarly, a member elected to the European Union can speak in the House in any of the 24 languages in use in member-countries.

Ludicrous woodenness

In this light, the problem created in Mr Alagiri’s case is entirely thoughtless and avoidable. It has reportedly arisen because of a narrow interpretation of the existing rule of procedure and conduct of business in both Houses permitting a member, who cannot adequately express himself in either Hindi or English, to address the House, with the permission of the Speaker/Chairman, in any of the languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution or in his mother-tongue.

The secretariats are reportedly insisting that the facility can be availed of only by a ‘member’ and not a Minister. One has to undertake a worldwide search of material on the working of legislatures to come across a more ludicrous instance of woodenness. So long as a Minister is also an elected member, he should be taken as being entitled to whatever is available to a member. In fact, it is worthwhile for the two presiding officers to change the rule, if necessary, to put an end to this quibbling. The alternative is the possible snow-balling of bitterness in non-Hindi speaking regions.

B. S. RAGHAVAN

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