KOCHI: The police officers in the state are often perceived and portrayed as angry men for which they blame the situations they are in. The cops now have a new reason to get worked up as they are being pulled up by the authorities concerned for their reluctance to use Malayalam in official written communication.
On April 27 the Public and Administrative Reforms Department (P&ARD, Official Language) had issued an order directing all government, quasi-government, public sector, autonomous, and cooperative institutions to make Malayalam the official language from May 1. After nearly six months, the state police, particularly Vigilance, hold the disgraceful record for using Malayalam, which they admit is the least. Public Works and Irrigation Departments fared slightly better than them. The Department of Culture did the most commendable job.
As a follow-up, Vigilance Director Loknath Behera, who is also the state police chief, sent a circular on September 29 to the department urging serious steps to better their scores in time for the next review.
“Except in instances where there is permission, it’s being instructed Malayalam must be used for all official purposes,” concludes Behera’s letter, written in Malayalam.
In Kochi, Vigilance got into action and organised a Malayalam Week Celebration,coinciding with the Kerala Day, where filmmaker and writer P Balachandran and MG University School of Letters faculty member and poet Changampuzha Harikumar spoke about the relevance of the mother tongue in retaining a community’s identity.
Joseph Saju, DySP at the Vigilance office in Kochi, who has studied the issue in detail, said bringing about the change in the police department is a real challenge.“It’s true we’ve been using a lot of English words over the years in our written communication. Most officers are apprehensive to make a change as we’re dealing with sensitive issues. As with several other government departments, we prefer to be a cog in the wheel and just go through the routine motions,” said Joseph.
“In Vigilance, even our police station inspection reports are in English. It may be broken sentences, but English is always preferred to Malayalam. A change is possible as books like the Niyama Sabdavali come in handy,” he said.
‘Responsibility of each sector’
Changampuzha Harikumar said “it’s the duty of respective sector to find its own set of Malayalam words” while P Balachandran said “it’s better to use words like ‘criminal’ and ‘switch’ as it is.”