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Rajya Sabha: Opposition slams NDA government over ‘Hindification of laws'
The accusations were levelled by the opposition during a discussion on the Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak bill, whose title was changed from English to Hindi.
Opposition leaders on Thursday accused the Central government of imposing Hindi by bringing new bills titled in the language.
While the charges were being levelled against them in Rajya Sabha, the NDA-led government's bench responded by saying that the opposition was stuck with a colonial mindset.
During a discussion on 'The Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak, 2024', an act that seeks to replace the 90-year-old Aircraft Act, Trinamool Congress leader Sagarika Ghose opposed the bill's name, while a YSRCP leader asked the government to reconsider the bill's "nomenclature".
Notably, bill has been introduced with a goal of boosting ease of doing business and attracting new investments in the aviation sector.
TMC's Ghosh asked why so many laws have "Hindi names?" and said that "this is an imposition of Hindi".
She remarked that the mandate to the government in 2024 was for "diversity, dividend, and the federal principle" but, Ghose added, the Centre is persistent on 'Hindification of laws'.
The TMC leader also pointed out that the Indian Penal Code has been replaced with Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and now the Indian Aircraft Act is being changed to Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak.
DMK MP Kanimozhi NVN Somu, meanwhile, asked the central government to change the name of the Aircraft Bill. "Don't try to impose Hindi on people who don't speak Hindi. I request the Union government to refrain from naming bills in Hindi and Sanskrit," she opined.
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The remark of 'not opposing Hindi on non-Hindi speaking people' is something that Tamil Nadu's ruling party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, has raised for the longest time. They have time and again expressed strong exceptions to the use of the Hindi language at the front in the state.
Additionally, YSRCP's S Niranjan Reddy also asked the government to reconsider the "nomenclature" of the bill, not because of his opposition to the 'Hindi imposition' but due to a constitutional requirement that since it has been brought in English, the title cannot be in Hindi.
"We are now going to have the possibility of a constitutional court, a high court or the Supreme Court striking down this part saying that this part is unconstitutional because Article 348 (1B) requires authoritative text to be in English," Reddy said.
The YSRCP leader further said that the Parliament can have the entire authoritative text in Hindi also, adding that from the title to every single word can be in Hindi.
"I am trying to speak for 56 per cent of the Indian population which does not have Hindi as their mother tongue... not to oppose (the bill)," Reddy said.
However, BJP leader Ghanshyam Tiwari dismissed the opposition's 'Hindi imposition' accusation and said that the bill with a Hindi title has been presented to the Upper House by a Telugu minister -- Union aviation minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu.
Tiwari said the step has been taken in accordance with constitutional provisions and noted that the name coming in any language is not an effort to impose any language.
"This shows their colonial era mindset," he said while taking a jibe at the opposition leaders.
The Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak bill, which was moved by Kinjarapu on Tuesday, was later passed by the Rajya Sabha.
Rajya Sabha cleared it on Thursday by a voice vote, while the Lok Sabha had cleared it on August 9.
The civil aviation minister also responded to the opposition's objections and said the title was changed from English to Hindi to "showcase India's heritage and culture", adding that "there was no violation of Constitutional rule".
It will be difficult to pronounce the name of the bill in Hindi initially but one will get used to it, he added.
(With inputs from PTI)
