New Delhi: Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday slammed as "unwarranted" DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran's criticism of including Sanskrit among the languages in which simultaneous translation of Lok Sabha proceedings will be provided and said there is no need to diminish one language to promote another.
He said on X, "Dayanidhi Maran's unwarranted remarks on Sanskrit are not only in bad taste but also reveal DMK's selective outrage, hypocrisy and propaganda when it comes to India's linguistic heritage. Indulging in divisive politics is the real waste of taxpayers' money." Maran alleged in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday that taxpayers' money was being wasted by providing simultaneous interpretation of Lok Sabha proceedings in Sanskrit due to the RSS ideology, prompting Speaker Om Birla to hit back saying Sanskrit has been the primary language of India.
"In which country are you living in. This is India. India's primary language has been Sanskrit," Birla said, chiding the former Union minister. Pradhan praised Birla "for aptly rebuking this attempt to simmer hate and create false binaries between Indian languages". Soon after the Question Hour concluded, Birla said he was happy to announce that six more languages -- Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Manipuri, Sanskrit and Urdu -- have been included in the list of languages in which simultaneous interpretation was available for members.
He said besides English and Hindi, simultaneous interpretation is available in Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odiya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.
