MyVoice: Views of our readers 10th April 2022

Hindi cannot be the official language of India

Union Home Minister Amit Shah while presiding over the 37th meeting of Parliament 's Official Language Committee in New Delhi on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had decided that the medium of running the government would be the official language viz Hindi. It is quite contrary to the statement given by Rajnath Singh in Parliament when he was the Home Minister- Hindi is raj bhasha (Language of rulers ) and not rashtra bhasha ( national language)

It seems to add one more narration to the ruling party's rhetoric like one nation one tax ,one nation one election, one nation one ration card etc. But in a country where different traditions, different cultures, different dialects and different languages, it is highly impossible to make Hindi as link language and to replace English .In fact English is considered as language of employment, language of opportunities and international language.

Moreover the country witnessed violent agitation against 3 language formula in 1960s especially from Tamil Nadu. During the agitation fatherly figure Annadurai said if only the number of people speaking Hindi is criteria to make Hindi as official language of the nation why can't we declare crow as the national bird instead of peacock as former is more in number than the latter.

Further the Home Minister forgot for the sake of convenience to quote the Official Language Act 1963 while mentioning Article 343 to support his case for making Hindi as link language or official language. The 1963 Act says the 8th schedule of the Constitution recognises 22 languages as official languages and state governments can choose one of them as their respective Official Language.

Even now states like West Bengal, Karnataka,Tamil Nadu, Telangana etc vociferously raised their voice against the Home Minister statement. It is also feared that the IT tycoons may shift their business from India to some other countries if Hindi occupies the place of English.

The move is also seen as diversionary tactic to divert the peoples' attention from ever increasing price of fuel and other goods. So, it is better to leave the choice of language learning to the people rather than forcing the issue.

Pratapa Reddy Yaramala, Tiruvuru

A heart-warming gesture by TS Chief Justice

It is really a great gesture on the part of the Chief Justice of Telangana High court in stopping his vehicle and appreciating the home guard who was on duty under the scorching sun in Hyderabad recently. Such acts of appreciations of the hard work of the ground level police personnel by the highest officials, especially by the chief justice of the High court, will certainly boost the morale of others too and motivate them for more work.

No job is too low to be disregarded and it is in the best interests of the management of every organisation to frequently identify and recognise the hard working cadres giving them a pat on their backs which will motivate them for more productive work.

K Durga Prasad Rao, Hyderabad

India can do well indigenising defence sector

The new list of at least 100 weapons and systems that will face an import ban over the next five years comes on the back of two similar lists released in 2020 and 2021. Indicative in the announcement is the firm resolve to stay the course on indigenisation of the armament industry, and the growing confidence in the capability of domestic players to deliver as per international standards.

Since the notification of the two previous lists, contracts worth Rs 54,000 crore have been signed for domestic procurement. Orders worth more than Rs 2,10,000 crore are likely to be placed with the industry in the next five years, showing, the fast pace of self-reliance in the defence sector. In the past three years, Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) — the first step towards buying military hardware under defence procurement rules — has been accorded for equipment worth Rs 2,47,515 crore from domestic makers.

Ramping up production of military equipment is also important because of the possible shortfall from Russia, the main supplier of defence equipment, considering its own pressing requirements. Even before the Ukraine crisis brought to sharp focus the need to accelerate the march towards strategic autonomy, reducing the dependence on imported military platforms, 'Make in India' had graduated from being a mere slogan to an implementable plan showing encouraging results. Not just making weapons for itself, India's emergence as a weapons exporter, too, has been grabbing eyeballs.

Also, the positive indigenisation, or negative import, list includes high-end, sophisticated platforms, ammunition and weaponry, giving a major boost and opportunity to domestic manufacturers. Building a credible military industrial complex is a long-term project that would require a sustained level of public-private commitment and interface.

Add to this, India has immense potential to transform itself from a defence importer to a defence producer, only if it adopts an integrated industrial, scientific and educational approach. Keeping industrial and scientific development as the leading goal has direct benefits on defence manufacturing, enhancing the indigenous techno-industrial capability for producing top-of-the-line weapons systems.

N Sadhasiva Reddy, Bengaluru

A close look at Portuguese model

Few are aware that the Portuguese ruled Goa for 450 years (1510-1961) and yet had a poor economy. Portugal was a 'pioneer in expansionism', motivating other sea faring, ship building neighbours to explore, conquer, loot and plunder. Yet, it was one of the backward countries in western Europe in terms of GDP and per capita income. This was mainly due to short-sighted economic policies when it failed to outgrow its initial mercantile objectives of extracting maximum profits with minimal investment.

Agriculture, mining, infrastructure, industry, and higher education stayed quite static during their rule in Goa. Literacy remained at very low levels (11-13%) even after hundreds of years of an uninterrupted rule. Trade, commerce, tariffs, and other dues remained its major source of revenue with poor investment in production. Lotteries and excise duty generated great income.

There was a silent encouragement of smuggling and illegal sales of Indian goods to generate the much-needed Indian currency. Banco Nacional Ultamarino, the only bank, had the dubious distinction of accepting deposits but offering no interest and advancing loans at what was probably the highest rate of interest in the world. Portuguese India hence gained the dubious distinction of being the 'most intoxicated' country in the world. Portugal did not know unfortunately how to exploit the way the Britishers could.

The Portuguese should now be happy that many states are following their economic model where excise taxes form a major part of their revenue. We are now allowing the bars to remain open the whole night too without worrying about the risk of collateral damage to innocent citizens because of late night drunken driving. It is sad that Excise becomes an important part of revenue and the governments apply targets to achieve.

Apparently, the department becomes jittery on the 'no drink' days as it makes exceptions for a few places to sell liquor. On the other hand, there are the hypocrisies of 'prohibition states' where liquor flows in equal amounts as any other state but the revenue goes into personal pockets.

Dr Pingali Gopal, Warangal

Don't malign the judges

Chief Justice of India NV Ramana has aired his disturbance over governments tending to malign judges whose orders and observations are not to their taste. Now-a-days nobody respects the judiciary created by the Constitution the principles whereof must be upheld by one and all. Whatever be the court-verdicts, the governments should abide by them. Or legal avenues like appeals, revisions, etc., are there to challenge the views of the judiciary. Unfortunately, the very rulers malign judges over their decrees which is akin to challenging, in a sense implicit, our Constitution. This mindset should go.

E Sethuramalingam, Kollam