Political slugfest in U.P. as language debate takes centrestage

Political slugfest in Uttar Pradesh over language debate, with BJP-RSS accused of undermining English and Urdu.

In recent days, the language debate has gained traction over a political slugfest in Uttar Pradesh, with senior party leaders wading into it.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, on a two-day visit to his constituency Rae Bareli on February 20-21, accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), of attempting to prevent marginalised people from learning English, describing the language as the “biggest weapon”.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, whose government has allowed MLAs to express their views in the regional dialects or ‘sub-languages’ of Hindi, including Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Bundeli, and Braj, during Assembly proceedings from the present session, has aggressively pushed the case of regional dialects by establishing academies for each of these dialects.

The language issue is also leading to a sharp war of words, with the Opposition accusing the government of indulging in divisive rhetoric by ignoring and wrongly defaming Urdu, the second official language of the State.

“People belonging to the BJP-RSS say that one should not learn the English language. Mohan Bhagwat says we should not speak in English. But the English language is a weapon. If you learn this language, you can go anywhere, be it Tamil Nadu, Japan or Mumbai, or work in any company. They want you to not learn English because they don’t want Dalits, Adivasis and the poor to go where this language is used. But English is your biggest weapon. Hindi is also important; it is not right to cut your roots. But English is also very important,” Mr. Gandhi had said, addressing a dialogue on Dalit issues at the Mool Bharatiya Hostel for Scheduled Castes (SC) students, in Rae Bareli on February 20.

Earlier, on February 18, the U.P. Assembly witnessed a heated debate over the language issue, which turned into a political slugfest, with Hindi pitted against the second official language of the State, Urdu. As soon as Assembly Speaker Satish Mahana announced that the House proceedings would be available in four regional languages — Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Braj, and Bundeli, as well as English — Samajwadi Party (SP) MLAs, led by the Leader of the Opposition Mata Prasad Pandey, opposed the move of allegedly “imposing English” while Urdu faced negligence.

“I oppose English being imposed upon members in the House. By promoting English you are weakening Hindi...If English is included, Urdu should also be included,” Mr. Pandey said, adding that, in the past, SP members had launched a movement against English and had been jailed for it.