Ajit Pawar slams opposition to Hindi in schools, says Marathi will remain top priority

Pune: Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar has criticised political parties for opposing the move to make Hindi a mandatory third language for students in classes 1 to 5 in Marathi and English-medium schools across the state.

He said those opposing the decision are raking up “unnecessary disputes for lack of real issues”.

“Marathi is our mother tongue and will always have first preference in the state,” said Pawar on the sidelines of the inauguration of a national memorial dedicated to the Chapekar Brothers in Pimpri Chinchwad on Friday.

Hitting out at critics, Pawar said, “Some people are creating disputes over the Hindi language only because they have nothing else to do. English is widely used across the country, and similarly, Hindi is spoken in many states. While there is a dispute over whether Hindi is the ‘Rashtra Bhasha’, I don't want to get into that.” The Maharashtra government has decided that Hindi as a third language would be mandatory for students in classes 1 to 5 in Marathi and English-medium schools across the state, in a departure from the practice of studying two languages.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) president Raj Thackeray has slammed the move, adding his party will not allow the Centre’s efforts to “Hindi-fy” everything to succeed in the state. The Congress has said the decision amounts to the imposition of Hindi.

Pawar asserted that all three languages – Marathi, Hindi and English – are important, but Marathi will always hold primacy in the state. “Marathi must remain intact and continue to grow,” he said.

Highlighting the Centre’s role in promoting the language, Pawar said, “It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who granted Marathi the status of a classical language, a decision that had been pending in Delhi for years. The NDA government showed the courage to make it happen." He added that plans are underway to set up a Marathi Bhasha Bhavan in Mumbai to further promote the language.

The three-language formula for classes 1 to 5 is a part of the new curriculum implementation under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

The state school education department has declared a phase-wise implementation plan of the new curriculum framework designed as per the NEP 2020 recommendations for school education.