Lucknow, Feb 18: Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday slammed Samajwadi Party for demanding translation of House proceedings in Urdu as well, saying they send their own children to English medium schools but want others’ children to learn Urdu and become “maulvis”.
On the first day of the Budget Session, the House witnessed a heated exchange between him and SP leader Mata Prasad Pandey who demanded including Urdu translation after Speaker Satish Mahana announced it would be available in four regional languages — Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Braj and Bundeli — as well as English.
Pandey’s objection to including English and demand for Urdu translation irked the chief minister who accused the Samajwadi Party of having double-standard.
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“They send their children to English medium schools but when the government wants to extend this opportunity to others’ children, they (SP leaders) say ‘teach them Urdu’… they want to make these children maulvis. They want to take the country towards fanaticism (kathmulla-pan),” Adityanath said.
Pandey, also the Leader of the Opposition, said the use of English in assembly isn’t justified. “By promoting, English you are weakening Hindi,” he said.
If English was included then Urdu must be included too, Pandey demanded.
In his response, Adityanath said the government is committed to the preservation and promotion of these sub-languages or dialects of Hindi.
“We are also forming separate academies for promotion of these languages, which are ‘daughters’ of Hindi and should be given their due. This House is not only for scholars, but is meant to be the voice of every section of the society,” he said.
“Those opposing Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Braj and Bundelkhandi are actually against the cultural heritage of Uttar Pradesh,” he said.
Pandey countered the CM by stating that he and his party were not opposing inclusion of regional languages.
“We are only opposing the inclusion of English,” he said, telling the House Samajwadis have always favoured Hindi over English.
Adityanath, however, said, “Brajbhasha is so rich that Sant Surdas composed his works in this language. Similarly, Sant Tulsidas ji composed Ramcharitmanas in Awadhi, which helped not just North India but also the NRIs during the crisis.”
He said, “It has become a nature of the Samajwadi Party to oppose every good work. They had opposed the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat’s decision to recognise the local languages too.”
He stressed that his government was committed for the promotion of Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Braj and Bundelkhandi.
A Bhojpuri Academy, an Awadhi Academy and a Braj Academy were being set up for the purpose, he said. “It is our responsibility to save our mother tongue and promote it.”
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna said, “We are not imposing English. It is just that a system has been made to ensure that those conversant with English can also follow assembly proceedings.” (PTI)
