NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha on Tuesday saw heated arguments after DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran flagged Sanskrit interpretations of Lok Sabha proceedings, terming it “RSS ideology”.
Soon after the Question hour, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla announced that six more languages — Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Manipuri, Sanskrit and Urdu — have been included in the list of languages in which simultaneous interpretation was available for members.
Responding sharply to the announcement, Dayanidhi Maran said that taxpayers’ money was being wasted by providing simultaneous interpretation of Lok Sabha proceedings in Sanskrit. Maran questioned the inclusion of Sanskrit interpretation, arguing that it was “not communicable”. While he supported the interpretation in official state languages, he objected to Sanskrit.
“The population survey in 2011 said only 73,000 people are supposedly speaking Sanskrit. When there is data, why should we waste taxpayer’s money due to RSS ideology?” he asked.
This prompted Birla to hit back, saying Sanskrit has been the primary language of India. A visibly upset Birla said simultaneous interpretation of House proceedings was not limited to Sanskrit alone but other recognised languages too.
“Simultaneous interpretation will be available in Hindi and Sanskrit,” Birla said.
Meanwhile, participating in the discussion on Budget, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “This is a targeted budget. It is focused on those who are very rich, big people, industrialists. I do not see any roadmap in the budget to make India a developed nation,” Yadav said.
As soon as the budget came, we saw those pictures. Were the 10 budgets made for this country only, so that when the 11th budget comes, the whole country and the whole world will see that the people of India were sent back with handcuffs,” the SP chief said.