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As Awadhi, Braj & Bhojpuri ring out in House, Speaker underlines ‘regional connect’

Later in the day, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath emphasised that all these regional languages are part of “Devnagri lipi” and the Assembly is only giving options — including English — and not making their use compulsory.

Samajwadi Party, up Assembly, Shrikant Sharma, Manoj Kumar Pandey, Yogi Adityanath, Lucknow news, Uttar pradesh news, Indian express, Current affairs

Speaker Satish Mahana at the Assembly in Lucknow on Wednesday. (Vishal Srivastav)

A DAY after the state Assembly witnessed animated discussions over a demand by Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders that Urdu should be included along with other regional languages as options for translation of house proceedings and opposition against English as an option, the Assembly on Wednesday saw members speaking in regional languages such as Braj, Awadhi and Bhojpuri.

BJP MLA and former minister Shrikant Sharma, who hails from Mathura, set the ball rolling by speaking in the Braj language. Sharma congratulated Speaker Satish Mahana for the initiative and pointed out that while they speak regional dialects at home but often do not do so after they step out of their houses. He expressed confidence that the move would help youngsters to “connect more with their respective regional languages.”

Then, rebel SP MLA Manoj Kumar Pandey, who is from Rae Bareli, spoke in favour of the move – in Awadhi. His address was followed by BJP MLA Ketakee Singh from Ballia, who, speaking in Bhojpuri, also thanked the Speaker for the move.

Speaker Satish Mahana asked if anyone wanted to speak in Bundelkhandi, but none of the MLAs came forward.

Later in the day, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath emphasised that all these regional languages are part of “Devnagri lipi” and the Assembly is only giving options — including English — and not making their use compulsory.

However, SP legislators, including Leader of Opposition Mata Prasad Pandey, continued to oppose the move to introduce English and again flagged the alleged “non-inclusion” of Urdu among the languages of translation.

Later in the day, another SP rebel MLA, Rakesh Singh, also raised the issue of some of the opposition MLAs allegedly not standing or giving due respect to “rashtra gaan” (national anthem) when it was played after the Assembly re-assembled around 12:30 pm on Tuesday. In response, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna requested the Speaker to check the CCTV footage and take action so that such an act is not repeated.

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Speaker Satish Mahana told the MLAs that he would look into the issues raised.

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