SAD to take up exclusion of Punjabi language from JK's bill in Parliament

Shrimoni Akhali Dal will raise the issue of including Punjabi as the official language of Jammu and Kashmir in the next session of the Parliament. There have been rifts between NDA and SAD over farm bills for the past few days.

New Delhi: Shrimoni Akhali Dal (SAD) leader Naresh Gujral has expressed dissatisfaction over Punjabi not being included as one of the official languages in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Gujral is likely to take up the matter in the next session of the Parliament and will also meet Union Minister Amit Shah requesting an amendment in the bill.

The remarks of the SAD comes after Lok Sabha passed a bill for the inclusion of Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi in the list of official languages of JK. The Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, 2020 was passed by Rajya Sabha through voice vote. Urdu and English are already the existing official languages.

Participating in the debate on the Bill, Naresh Gujral (SAD) termed it 'unfortunate' that Punjabi was not included in the Bill and urged the government to reconsider it. He said 13 lakh Punjabis live in Jammu and Kashmir.

Speaking to ETV Bharat, he said, "I took the issue to include Punjabi in this bill. Punjabi was included in the official language of Jammu and Kashmir earlier. Jammu and Kashmir was part of Maharaja Ranjit Singh's empire. The first Prime minister of Kashmir Mehar Chand Mahajan was also Punjabi."

READ: Punjab MPs raise issue of exclusion of Punjabi language from J&K, Bajwa writes to PM

He went on to add, "We will raise this issue in the next session of Parliament. I will try to talk to MPs of other parties of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir on this matter. We will meet Home minister and request for an amendment."

25 bills were passed and 7 bills were introduced in Rajya Sabha during the monsoon session of the Parliament. Akhali Dal has been one of the oldest alliance partner of BJP but now both the parties have parted ways over the controversial farm bills. The BJP top brass has always been proud of its special ties with the SAD for decades.

Union minister for food processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal resigned from the Modi government in protest against the legislations aimed to liberalise trade in agricultural commodities. Kaur was the only SAD representative in the NDA govt.