Ambedkar on Sanskrit: Chief Justice Misleads People
When the Chief Justice of India is set to address an audience on the occasion that marks the birth anniversary of Dr. BR Ambedkar, the chief architect of the constitution of this most diverse country in the world, people are sure to have certain expectations from the CJI.
The expectations could be that the Chief Justice would speak about the need to establish equality, eradication of casteism, emancipation of Dalits, and such other issues that were close to Ambedkar’s heart. When the Chief Justice who is the gate keeper of the Constitution talks about Ambedkar, one would expect a review of the extent to which the dreams of Ambedkar have been realized.
Not only that, he should recall the contributions of Ambedkar in shaping the Constitution and provide guidance on how the challenges before the Constitution today can be addressed. Ironically, keeping all these issues aside, the Chief Justice of India in his address on Ambedkar Jayanthi earlier this week took up for discussion how Ambedkar wanted to make Sanskrit a national language, an issue that has no relevance and is not helpful for the country in the present day. When conspiracies are being hatched to make Hindi the country’s national language, Chief Justice Bobde went a step ahead and indirectly demanded that Sanskrit be made the national language.
It is not a small crime for the Chief Justice to misuse the name of Ambedkar to mislead people and impose RSS agenda in an indirect way. It is therefore today’s necessity to convince the people of the country about the veracity of Bobde’s statement.
What has Ambedkar got to do with Sanskrit? How much has Sanskrit helped in molding Ambedkar’s personality and organizing Dalits, the downtrodden, and the exploited, and get them justice? What is the contribution of Sanskrit to the rise of Ambedkar? Would Ambedkar have remained immortal today in our midst in the absence of English education? The answers we find for these questions prove how irrelevant Bobde’s demand is. Sanskrit has not contributed anything for the uplift of the country’s exploited communities.
Instead, it treated these communities as untouchables. Manu announced in Sanskrit that Shudhras and Dalits are not qualified to be educated. Because it has stayed irrelevant to a majority of the people in the country, Sanskrit is being called a dead language. The language is neither being used by the people as a medium of communication in their daily lives nor is it being used by upper classes. Chief Justice Bobde is attempting to make a language that is on the verge of extinction as the national language which is similar to terming as a national animal an animal that is extinct.
If a language has to be conferred the status of a national language, the people of the entire country should be able to communicate with each other through that language. There are no possibilities before us to make a language that is restricted to hymns chanted by priests as a national language viable to be used in banks, government offices, or in the daily lives of people. South Indians are not willing to accept Hindi that has taken over the entire North India. What is the need for the imposition of Hindi, ask South Indians? A non-Hindi state such as Kerala is ahead in the areas of health, development, and literacy in the country. No North Indian state has achieved as much as Karnataka and Andhra in IT sector. Tamil Nadu is renowned in the world for the creativity of its people.
All these were achieved by adopting both regional languages and English. Hindi speaking states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana are backward in development and education sectors. All these states should consider South India as a model and the Centre must make it compulsory for them to learn one South Indian language. When Hindi finds itself in such a state, what are the reasons for imposing Sanskrit on the country? What will India accomplish by learning Sanskrit?
“Ambedkar had demanded that Sanskrit should be made a national language. He wanted to submit an appeal about this. Leaders of all communities had supported this and had signed it,” Bobde said in his speech. He was not sure however, whether the demand was actually submitted or not. When a Chief Justice raises a serious issue in the name of Ambedkar, it is important that he is aware of all the details.
When a Chief Justice makes a public speech based on a lie floated by pandits trained in the RSS University, to what extent can we expect justice to be provided in matters that relate to the country’s wellbeing? It was Lakshmikanth Maitra who had submitted a correction before the committee framing the Constitution about making Sanskrit the official, national language. But nobody officially supported this.
On the contrary, several leaders offered their opinions. In the ensuing discussion in the meeting, Durgabai suggested that Hindustani mixed with Persian and Roman numerals should be made a part of the country’s language instead of Hindi. Jan Sangh founder Shamaprasad Mukherjee had expressed his opinion that no language should be made an official national language. Another Hindutva leader Purushotham Das Tandon argued that “it is not possible to make Sanskrit an official language of the country. It will fail when it is implemented practically.”
At the end of the discussion, Lakshmikanth Maitra withdrew his suggestion. It is true that Ambedkar was in favour of making Hindi a national language. Similarly, Ambedkar had studied Sanskrit in depth. But he was aware of the damage that Sanskrit had caused to the people. On Ambedkar Jayanthi, the increasing atrocities against Dalits must be discussed. The judges must speak about the challenges before the Constitution but they are not interested in such discussions. For this reason, Bobde made a futile attempt to reignite an old debate that has been consigned to the dust bin and to highlight it in public in the name of Ambedkar.
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Ex-PM Devegowda warns opposition of electoral losses if they continue to allege 'vote chori'
New Delhi (PTI): Former Prime Minister H D Devegowda on Monday said the Opposition parties would "suffer" if they continue to raise allegations of "vote chori" and create suspicion in the minds of voters by blaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.
Participating in a discussion on election reforms in the Rajya Sabha, he criticised the Opposition for making a mockery about the Prime Minister "in the streets and on the public platform".
"This (India) is a very big country. A large country. Congress may be in three states. Remember my friends please, by using the words 'vote chori' you are going to suffer in the coming days. You are not going to win the battle," Devegowda said, referring to the Opposition members.
He asked what the Opposition is going to earn by "blaming Narendra Modi's leadership and creating a suspicion in the mind of the voters" through the claims of "vote chori".
"What has happened to their minds? Let them rectify," Devegowda said.
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The former prime minister said that during his over seven decades of public life, he has never raised such issues of vote theft despite facing defeat in elections.
He also cited a letter written by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru regarding inclusion of "18,000 votes" (voters) in Kerala.
"Why I am telling this (because) during the Nehru period also, there were certain lapses in the electoral system," said Devegowda, who was the prime minister between June 1, 1996 and April 21, 1997.
He said that the Congress party faced defeat in the recent Bihar elections despite raising the issues of mistakes in the electoral rolls.
"What happened after that even after so much review (of voters list). Think (for) yourself! You got six MLAs," the senior Janata Dal (Secular) leader said.
Devegowda questioned the Opposition as to why they want to make allegations against the prime minister on the issue of the voters list?
"Election Commission is there. Supreme Court is there. The Election Commission has given direction to all the state units to rectify all these things," he said.
Devegowda said people of the country have full confidence in Narendra Modi's government and it will come back to power after the next Lok Sabha elections as well.
K R Suresh Reddy, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party's Rajya Sabha member from Telangana, said that electoral reforms are the backbone for a healthy democracy.
He said a large and diverse nation like Indi needs clean electoral rolls.
Asserting that strict re-verification should not become a mechanism for exclusion, Reddy said no eligible voter should lose their right to vote simply because accessing paperwork is difficult.
He said while the concern definitely is on the voters' exclusion, "we should also be equally concerned about the percentage of voting."
"What is happening in voting today? Once the election ends, the drama begins. The biggest challenge that the Indian democracy has been facing in spite of two major Constitutional amendments has been the anti-defection. Anti-defection is the name of the game today, especially in smaller states, especially where the legislatures are small in number," Reddy said.
The senior BRS leader suggested creation of a parliamentary committee "which would constantly look into the defection" and "ways and means to cutting that".
AIADMK's M Thambidurai raised the issues related to election campaigning.
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"Election campaigns are one of the important election processes. In that, political parties must be given the proper chance to campaign," he said and cited problems faced by his party in Tamil Nadu in this regard.
Thambidurai said political parties were facing hardships in Tamil Nadu to conduct public meetings and to express their views to the public.
YSRCP's Yerram Venkata Subba Reddy stressed on bringing electoral reforms at both the state and national levels.
He also suggested replacing Electronic Voting Machines with paper ballots in all future elections.
"EVM may be efficient but can't be trusted. Paper ballot may not be efficient but can be trusted. You need trust in democracy," Reddy added.
