Speaker Om Birla
Credit: Sansad TV
New Delhi: Inclusion of Sanskrit for simultaneous interpretation of Lok Sabha proceedings triggered objections from senior DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran on Tuesday, who alleged that taxpayers' money is being wasted on one language due to RSS ideology. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla hit back saying, Sanskrit has been the primary language of India.
The exchange of words happened during Zero Hour in Lok Sabha after Birla announced the inclusion of six more languages -- Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Manipuri, Sanskrit and Urdu -- in the list of languages in which simultaneous interpretation is available for members.
Birla said he was happy to announce the addition of six more languages in the list of languages in which simultaneous interpretation was available for MPs. This is besides simultaneous interpretation in English, Hindi, Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odiya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.
With this, he said simultaneous interpretation is available in 6 languages and there is no other Parliament in the world, which has simultaneous interpretation in these many languages. The effort is to cover all 22 Scheduled languages mentioned in the Constitution and it would be done as and when human resources are available, he said.
As Birla made the announcement, DMK MPs, particularly Maran, were on their feet and the Speaker gave the floor to Maran asking what his "problem" was. Maran said he welcomed the simultaneous interpretation of official state languages while raising objections to Sanskrit interpretation as it was "not communicable".
"Can you tell me which state's official language is Sanskrit? This language is not communicable. It is not communicated in any of the states in India. The population survey in 2011 said only 73,000 people are supposed to be speaking. When that is the data, why should taxpayers money be wasted because of your RSS ideology?" he said.
Birla shot back, asking the DMK member which country he was residing in and said, "This is India and its primary language has been Sanskrit. I said 22 languages, not Sanskrit alone. Why do you object to Sanskrit? Why do you have a problem with Hindi? There are 22 recognised languages in Parliament. Simultaneous interpretation will take place in Hindi as well as Sanskrit," he added.