Only Hindi for babus? MHA readies translation of 41 English bureaucratic terms

The biggest proponent of using Hindi in the Narendra Modi government is Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself. Be it the United States or Japan, the Prime Minister has spoken in the official language wherever he has travelled. And his government had suggested within weeks of taking oath that Hindi be used as much as possible in official documents. And what PM Modi wants, PM Modi gets. So, to inculcate the habit of using Hindi among its bureaucrats, the Home Ministry has prepared a list of Hindi translations of English terms that are used by the babus. [caption id=“attachment_2133867” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. AFP[/caption] According to The Economic Times, “There are 41 phrases in the note, all of them Hindi versions of standard babu English. Examples include ‘as proposed’, ‘issue today’, ‘it is a matter of regret that’, ‘please discuss’, ‘question does not arise’ and ‘urgent attention must be given please’.” The final decision on the list was taken during a meeting chaired by Home Secretary LA Goyal last Friday. The Economic Times quoted a senior ministry official as saying, “We already give our comments in Hindi on files which originate in Hindi. Now, we have been advised if we can also try and write our comments in Hindi on all files so that the percentage of Hindi usage goes up. It is not a direction but only an advice to use Hindi more in official communication in terms of file notings.” The Centre, earlier in January, had given a directive for more use of Hindi during interactions in social media as well. However, the government’s move to promote Hindi in social media and official work had not gone down well with everyone. Leaders like Karunanidhi, Jayalalithaa and Brinda Karat had criticised the move. CPM leader Brinda Karat had opposed any move to impose Hindi, while in the Odisha Assembly a member’s attempt to put a question in Hindi was disallowed by the chair. Shooting off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Jayalalithaa had described the home ministry’s proposal as “against the letter and spirit” of the Official Languages Act, 1963, and said the “highly sensitive issue” caused “disquiet” to the people of Tamil Nadu “who are very proud of and passionate about their linguistic heritage”. DMK president M Karunanidhi, whose party had successfully led the anti-Hindi agitation in 1960s, had dubbed the move as a beginning of “imposition of Hindi” that would make non-Hindi speaking people second class citizens. The Centre’s move also found no favour with two of its Tamil Nadu allies also, with both PMK and MDMK opposing it.