Agartala, Feb 21: Jitendra Chaudhury on Saturday strongly criticised remarks allegedly made by Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his recent visit to Tripura, terming them an attempt to impose linguistic and cultural hegemonism on the people of the Northeast.
Shah had arrived in the state to inaugurate the Eastern, North-Eastern and Northern Regional Rajbhasha Sammelan at the International Indoor Exhibition Centre in Hapania. Reacting to his reported comments, Chaudhury, who also serves as the state secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said that while there is an Official Language Department to promote Hindi and there is no objection to its functioning, any effort to pressure people in the Northeast to adopt the Devanagari script for their languages would be unacceptable.
Chaudhury stated that during his tenure as a Member of Parliament, he had served on the committee related to official languages and participated in its meetings. However, he alleged that the Union Home Minister’s recent remarks suggesting that nearly 40 languages spoken in the Northeast should use the Devanagari script, and that development initiatives would hinge on its adoption, amounted to a “direct threat.”
Describing the alleged comments as an attack on linguistic diversity and cultural identity, Chaudhury said they reflected a hegemonic mindset towards language and culture. He further claimed that such thinking aligns with the ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and reiterated that decisions regarding language and script must rest with the people.
Marking International Mother Language Day, he stressed that communities must enjoy complete freedom over their mother tongues, including the choice of script. “People will decide the script of their language. We are against any kind of imposition,” he asserted.
