President Pranab Mukherjee okays call for all speeches to be in Hindi

President Pranab Mukherjee okays call for all speeches to be in Hindi

NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee has accepted the recommendation(सिफ़ारिश करना)  of the Committee of Parliament on Official Languages for speeches(भाषण) to be delivered only in Hindi by all dignitaries, including the President and ministers, if they can read and speak the language. The decision comes six years after the committee made 117 recommendations on how to make Hindi more popular and extensive Centre-state deliberations(विचार-विमर्श)  on the matter. The President’s notification has been sent to all ministries, states and the Prime Minister’s Office for compliance(अनुपालन) .

Mukherjee’s term ends in July and the next President could be making his speeches in Hindi alone. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet almost invariably speak in Hindi.

Other recommendations accepted by Mukherjee include usage of Hindi on Air India tickets and having Hindi magazines and newspapers on board for passengers as Hindi is "grossly(मोटे तौर पर) neglected by airlines." The civil aviation ministry has been asked to restrict this only to the state-owned airline, though the recommendation was to enforce it for all Indian carriers.

Rejected recommendations include mandatory use of Hindi for correspondence in public shareholding companies and all private companies to provide product information in Hindi and product name in Devnagri. However, as per the President’s orders, all government and semi-government organisations will need to mention products’ names in Hindi.

Fixing a minimum level of Hindi knowledge for getting government jobs was rejected.

The committee also sought to extend Hindi being a compulsory subject from class 8 to class 10 in all CBSE and Kendriya Vidyalya schools. The President has "accepted in principle." The Centre can do so in category A Hindi-speaking states but only after consultations with states and formulation of policy.

Universities in non-Hindi speaking states will be asked by the human resource development (HRD) ministry to give students a Hindi language option in examinations and interviews.

The government will also compile a dictionary of transliterated English-to-Hindi words and avoid difficult language in government correspondence. For instance, with a "word like demonetisation, vimudikaran or a word popular in public parlance, notebandi, can be used."

The Committee of Parliament on Official Language has given nine reports to the President so far since 1959, the last one in 2011. Former finance minister P Chidambaram was chairman of the committee when it submitted its report to government in 2011.