CHENNAI: DMK women’s wing secretary and Lok Sabha MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi’s speech in the Parliament on Thursday, calling for the naming of Central government schemes in all regional languages, had gone viral in social media.
In the video, Kanimozhi is seen struggling to read the name ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan’ (Self-reliant India scheme). “It is very difficult and that is the problem; you don’t understand we speak different languages. Either it can be in English or you can have it in regional languages. So all of us can say it,” she says, amid applause from fellow lawmakers.
As the video went viral on social media, many raised the same demand. DMK’s propaganda secretary T Sababathy Mohan told TNIE, “It is our ideology to respect all languages since India is a country of several languages. Even devastating storms get their names from several languages. Why not government schemes? It would improve the bonding among Indians as every Indian would come to know some words in all languages.”
Writer Aazhi Senthilnathan rued that schemes are being given Sanskrit names since the BJP government assumed power. “Even the Hindi-speaking North Indians wouldn’t understand some names. It seems to be a dictatorial way to impose Hindi and Sanskrit and affects States’ rights.”
Meanwhile, GK Muralidharan, State general secretary of TN unit of Congress, said, “The Centre is functioning by collecting tax from States. Hence, it is a genuine demand to name Central schemes in regional languages. Hindi is not the language for whole India.” He added that, since schemes are meant for the public, their names also should be understood by all people.
Veteran journalist Srinivas Venkat told TNIE, “It is not a political demand but the demand of the common man. How do the villagers understand a scheme named ‘Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana’. Even I don’t understand the purpose of the scheme through its name. It is an effort to indirectly impose Hindi.” He said if the Centre wants to prove that it is not a Hindi supporter, it should name Central schemes in all regional languages, in turns.
However, Narayanan Thirupathy, BJP’s official spokesperson, told TNIE that it is not practically possible for the Central government to name schemes in 22 languages and that details of the schemes are already communicated to different States in their respective languages. “While it is true that people in TN do not understand Hindi, it is also true that most of the people in India do not understand English. Tamil Nadu is a literate State and so, if parties or the State government put in more effort in explaining the merits of the schemes in the regional language, it will help the State.”