No language will be imposed on any state: Centre tells Parliament
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New Delhi: The Centre has told the parliament that ‘no language will be imposed on any state’ amid the ongoing controversy over the Centre’s three-language policy.
Tamil Nadu government fiercely called out the three language policy alongside the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP).
The minister of state for education Sukanta Majumdar said ‘there will be a greater flexibility in the three-language formula’.
The minister’s response came in a written reply to a question regarding the issue raised by Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP John Brittas in Rajya Sabha.
Sukanta Majumdar added that languages learned by students will be the ‘choices of states, regions and of course the students themselves’.
‘The [NEP], 2020, inter-alia, at para 4.13, provides that the three-language formula will continue to be implemented while keeping in mind the constitutional provisions, aspirations of the people, regions and the Union, and the need to promote multilingualism as well as promote national unity. However, there will be a greater flexibility in the three-language formula, and no language will be imposed on any State,’ Majumdar was quoted as saying.
The minister made it clear that ‘The three languages learned by children will be the choices of states, regions and of course the students themselves, so long as at least two of the three languages are native to India,’ adding that the policy gives the students the choice to ‘ study in their mother tongue/local/language’.
The Union government and Tamil Nadu government sparred over the Centre’s three language policy with the DMK-led government claiming that the BJP has agenda to push Hindi in Tamil Nadu.