Opposing Hindi imposition, KTR tells PM

Hyderabad: Telangana’s Information Technology, and Industries and Commerce Minister K. T Rama Rao on Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly opposing the move to make Hindi a medium of instruction in all technical and non-technical educational institutions including Central universities.

A Committee of Parliament on Official Language headed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah recommended that Hindi be made the medium of instruction in the technical and non-technical educational institutes. Stating that the recommendation is unconstitutional, Rama Rao demanded the recommendation to be withdrawn.

KTR, as the minister is popularly known, in his letter to the PM, detailed the “far reaching disastrous impact of the unconstitutional recommendation on the future of current and future generations, the division it could draw between various parts of India, and other crucial aspects”.

Drawing focus on how indirect imposition of Hindi is currently ruining lives of crores of youngsters, he said that students who pursue education in regional languages are losing out on Central government job opportunities as questions in qualifying tests for the central jobs are in Hindi, and English.

There are around 20 central recruitment agencies which conduct the exams in Hindi, and English. The UPSC conducts 16 recruitment exams for national posts in the two languages.

KTR, who is also working President of Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), said that job announcements from central recruiting agencies are scarce and the limited recruitment drives are discriminatory against the students who pursued education in regional languages. He termed this injustice against crores of youngsters eagerly aspiring for jobs.

He requested the Prime Minister to conduct the exams in regional languages for the benefit of the job aspirants.

Besides, in this highly competitive globalised world, the recommendation of the Committee of Parliament on Official Language could take us backwards in terms of the nation’s development, KTR wrote.

Pointing at the huge non-Hindi speaking population in India, he said that the Central government’s move to make Hindi mandatory will lead to socio-economic divisions in the country.