Maran protests Sanskrit interpretation of LS debate, Speaker retorts: ‘This is Bharat’

Birla retorted saying Sanskrit was the primary language of the country and many Indian languages were born out of it. “Which country are you living in? This is Bharat and its primary language has been Sanskrit. You have issues with Hindi also… Simultaneous interpretation will be available in Hindi and Sanskrit,” Birla asserted, triggering applause and cheering from the treasury benches.

After the Question Hour, the Speaker announced that six more languages — Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Manipuri, Sanskrit and Urdu — have been included in the list of languages in which simultaneous interpretation of Hose proceedings is available for members.

The languages already on the list include Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu besides Hindi and English.

“Bharat is the only democratic institution that is giving simultaneous interpretation of the (House) proceedings in 16 languages besides Hindi and English,” Birla said.

Maran immediately protested asking why Sanskrit should be added to the list. “Who is speaking in Sanskrit here? What about Bhojpuri,” he asked.

Maran cited the 2011 population survey to claim that Sanskrit was spoken by 73,000 people. “Which state has Sanskrit as official language? Why taxpayers’ money should be wasted…,” he asked.

Birla shot back at Maran: “What’s your problem?” “I said there will be 22 languages, not Sanskrit alone. Why do you object to Sanskrit? There are 22 recognised languages in Parliament. Simultaneous interpretation will take place in Hindi as well as Sanskrit,” he asserted.

Maran’s intervention evoked strong responses from the ruling party. Calling it an “unwarranted remark”, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said it was “not only in bad taste but also revealed DMK’s selective outrage, hypocrisy and propaganda when it came to India’s linguistic heritage”.

Warning the DMK leader, Pradhan said “indulging in divisive politics is the real waste of taxpayers’ money”. “We don’t need to diminish one language to promote another,” the minister said.