A day after the Maharashtra government issued an amended order saying that Hindi will “generally” be the third language, instead of being mandatory, for Class 1 to 5 students in Marathi- and English-medium schools in the state, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday defended the three-language formula, saying it was as per the National Education Policy (NEP).
“Earlier, we had made it mandatory to learn Hindi. Now we have removed the word mandatory. Now we have said that students can learn any other third Indian language. The three-language formula is as per the NEP,” Fadnavis told reporters in Dehu. Fadnavis was in the temple town to witness the Sant Tukaram Maharaj palkhi (palanquin) begin its journey to Pandharpur as part of the annual Pandharpur Wari festival.
“We are backing English but hating Indian languages. This is not appropriate. Indian languages are better than English…,” Fadnavis said.
The NEP has opened the door for making Marathi a global language, he added. “Now, we are teaching engineering and medicine in Marathi. Even MBA is being taught in Marathi…The NEP has opened the door for making Marathi a global language, a knowledge language and a language of economics…The Maharashtra government has accepted it. And therefore, the opposition to it is not good. If you see, Marathi is mandatory in all schools while an alternative has been provided to Hindi,” he added.
Fadnavis’s remarks came on a day when Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray had hit out at the government, saying that any move to impose Hindi on students would threaten the cultural and linguistic identity of the state.
On the opposition by MNS, Fadnavis said, “I have spoken to MNS chief Raj Thackeray. He is insisting that there should be two languages, and the third language should not be imposed. I have tried to convince him that the central government in NEP has brought in a three-language formula. If there is a three-language formula across the country, then Maharashtra cannot have a two-language formula. The NEP is for the country. The government of Tamil Nadu has gone to court against the three-language formula, but the court has not accepted it.”
Fadnavis asked, “What is wrong with learning any other Indian language? If it is done by sidelining Marathi, we can understand (the opposition). If our children learn any other language while learning Marathi, they will gain knowledge of the other language as well. The NEP has been prepared by experts…they have taken everything into consideration. It has been prepared scientifically after holding widespread discussions for three years.”
