CHENNAI: Union Minister for Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday criticised the ‘craze’ for English, at a function held in the city to mark the completion of one year of the NDA government.
The Union Minister spoke on a host of issues including the achievements of the BJP government.
Flaying ‘the craze for English’, Naidu said people should learn their mother tongue, besides Hindi. He recalled the anti-Hindi movement in Tamil Nadu and said he himself participated in the agitation and painted tar on Hindi letters. “Later on when I became a BJP leader and went to Delhi, I learnt that I have painted tar only on my face,” he added.
On the threat made by opposition parties that they would not allow the Parliament to function if External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj did not resign, Venkaiah said “Blocking the functioning of Parliament is not an achievement. You can talk out or walk out, but it should not be a break out.”
Coming down heavily on the opposition to International Yoga Day, Venkaiah asked “Some people have problem with anything to do with the word Hindu. The word Hindu does not refer to religion, but it should be understood as a broader cultural identity of India,” he asserted. “What is your problem, if the Prime Minister performs yoga?. If you want, you perform or you don’t. What is your problem, if the Prime Minister asks people to practice yoga? Is preaching good thing wrong?”
The Union Minister also stressed that the Aadhar card would be mandatory for people to receive government benefits and subsidies. The government was moving slowly, as the Aadhar card had not been issued to everyone. Asking the people to get the Aadhar card, he said “without Aadhar, you will be without any support.
He said the Modi government had brought the economy back on the rails and the GDP was growing and would surpass China in the future. The fiscal deficit which was as high as 5.7 per cent had come down to 4.1 per cent while the inflation rate had been brought down with the prices of essential commodities except pulses under check. To encourage the cultivation of pulses, the Centre had raised the procurement price of dhal by Rs 200 and had decided to import all kinds of pulses from other countries to meet the demand.
The government was trying to push reforms and it can only be done slowly, he said pointing to the government having no majority in the Rajya Sabha. The Centre-State ties have seen a radical change with greater devolution of power to States, with States increasing their share of the Central revenue from 32 per cent to 44 per cent. Besides, the Central government was also providing five per cent of its revenue to panchayats, he added.
