Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah chaired the 38th meeting of the Committee of Parliament on Official Language in New Delhi today. During the meeting, 12^th volume of the report of the Committee of Parliament on Official Language was also approved which will be presented to the President.

In his address, Union Home Minister said that in the year of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has kept “Panch Pran” in front of the country, out of which two Pran are- respect of heritage and erasing the signs of slavery. Shri Shah said that for 100% implementation of these two Pran, all the Indian languages and the official language will have to show their strength. He said that respect of heritage is incomplete without respect of language and acceptance of official language will come only when we give respect to local languages. Shri Shah said that Hindi is not in competition with local languages, the nation will be empowered only by promoting all Indian languages. He said that there is a need to develop acceptance for the official language without any kind of opposition, even if its pace is slow.

Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation said that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has taken the initiative to start engineering and medical courses in 10 languages and soon these courses will be available in all Indian languages and that moment will mark the beginning of the rise of local languages and official languages. He said that there can be no other favourable moment for the promotion of Indian languages as Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi proudly presents Hindi and all other Indian languages on global platform. Prime Minister Modi has never given a single speech in the Parliament in English and the Ministers of the government also try to give speeches in Indian languages, this gives a lot of momentum to the movement of connecting different languages.

Shri Amit Shah said that acceptance of official language does not come from law or circular but from goodwill, inspiration and encouragement. He said that Indian languages and their dictionaries remained intact even after the period of slavery, which is a great achievement. Shri Shah said that languages have worked to unite our country.

Union Home Minister said that since independence till 2014, nine volumes of report of the Committee of Parliament on Official Language were submitted, and since 2019 three volumes have been approved. He said that these volumes have been prepared subject wise and the theme of 12th volume is ‘Simplification’. Shri Amit Shah thanked all the members of the Committee of Parliament on Official Language and expressed confidence that the committee will continue to work for the promotion and dissemination of the official language in the future as well. Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language Shri Bhartruhari Mahtab, Union Ministers of State for Home Affairs Shri Ajay Kumar Mishra and Shri Nishith Pramanik and members of the Committee were present in the meeting.

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RK/AY/AKS