‘Hindification of laws’: Old row returns to House as Opposition MPs target Bill titles

Raising a question, YSR Congress Party MP Niranjan Reddy said that there is a “constitutional requirement” for the Bills that have been written in English to have English titles. Reddy cited Article 348 (1B) to substantiate his claim and said it is imperative for the “authoritative text to be in English”. The constitutional provision states that the “authoritative texts, of all Bills to be introduced or amendments thereto be moved in either House of Parliament… shall be in the English language”.

After this, CPI(M) MP John Brittas too raised the matter and cited the Article.

“We feel that this (giving Hindi titles to Bills) is a blatant violation of Article 348 which categorically states that Bills should have English titles,” Brittas told The Indian Express.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Sagarika Ghosh too referred to Article 348 and objected to the name of the Bill. Ghosh also spoke of “Hindi imposition” in the House. “The government is persistent on Hindification of laws. This is Hindi imposition,” she said.

Asked why the TMC was raising an objection to the names of the Bills, Ghosh told The Indian Express, “The fact is that the mandate of 2024 did not give the BJP the majority. But regional parties such as the Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party, and the DMK all swept our states. The poll verdict was for diversity and federal principles. They (the NDA) cannot go ahead with imposition of one language and one culture on all the other states”.

The DMK, which has a history of opposing “Hindi imposition”, also raised the matter in the House.

DMK MP Kanimozhi NVN Somu told The Indian Express that “anything that comes under the Constitution” should be in English.

She said, “But the current government has been bringing in new Bills with Hindi or Sanskrit names. What about the people who cannot understand or speak these languages?”

However, BJP MP Konda Vishweshwar Reddy, who represents Chevella in Telangana, said the opposition to Hindi is “part of the culture of hating other languages” .

“The DMK and other parties should stop it… We should be proud of our own language and culture, but hating Hindi is not the way forward,” he said.

When the new criminal codes — Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) 2023 and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) 2023 — were being debated in Parliament, similar objections were raised by some MPs then too.

As per the then Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, members of the panel had raised questions about the Hindi names of the three criminal codes being potentially being in violation of Article 348.

However, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had then rejected these objections. “The Article 348 of the Constitution of India inter alia says that the authoritative texts of all Acts passed by the Parliament shall be in English language. As the text of the proposed law is in English, it is not in violation of Article 348 of the Constitution of India,” the MHA said.