No answering questions in Tamil, DMK ministers told

The Lok Sabha secretariat on Wednesday turned down the request of DMK ministers to answer questions in Tamil but said party MPs could ask questions and make speeches in the language as there was provision for it in the constitution.

The Lok Sabha secretariat on Wednesday turned down the request of DMK ministers to answer questions in Tamil but said party MPs could ask questions and make speeches in the language as there was provision for it in the constitution.

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"According to the precedence in the house, the ministers should answer the questions either in English or Hindi," said Lok Sabha secretary general PDT Achary.

Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister MK Azhagri had said in Chennai on Tuesday that DMK ministers and MPs had made a request to parliament authorities to allow them to raise and answer questions in Tamil.

"Files containing the answers to questions are written in English and Hindi. So the ministers will have to reply either in English or in Hindi," Achary said.

Achary, however, said that MPs could ask questions and make speeches in their regional languages. "There is provision in the constitution in this regard. But ministers are not included in this provision."

AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa on Monday supported Azhagiri's request that the Lok Sabha secretariat should extend an 'interpreter service' to him to answer the queries of MPs in Tamil. She said that ministers who do not know Hindi and English would remain mute spectators if the interpreter service was not extended.

Taking a dig at Karunanidhi, the AIADMK leader also said that the chief minister failed to safeguard the dignity of Tamil in the Lok Sabha and asked him to withdraw his party from the union cabinet.