Maha Council: BJP legislator's Hindi address draws Opposition criticism

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A Bharatiya Janata Party legislator on Tuesday sparked a Hindi-Marathi debate in the Maharashtra Legislative Council after he sought to raise a job-related matter by speaking in Hindi.

House proceedings in Maharashtra are usually conducted in Marathi, the state's official language.

BJP member Shreekant Bharatiya expressed concerns saying some tech companies are issuing only letters of intent to newly recruited employees but delaying their actual joining.

However, Maneesha Kayande and Anil Parab from the Shiv Sena (UBT) objected to it on the grounds that Bharatiya was speaking in Hindi instead of Marathi.

Kayande said, "Why is the legislator speaking in Hindi when he himself can speak Marathi well? The entire House functions in Marathi, what is the reason behind such an act?"

In his defence, Bharatiya said, "Hindi is our 'Rashtra Bhasha' (national language), there is nothing wrong in speaking in it."

Kayande retorted, "Hindi has been not been recognised as 'Rashtra Bhasha'. He should not provide such wrong information in the House."

Parab said, "If someone speaks in Hindi and I fail to understand, it is the responsibility of the speaker to translate it into Marathi. Such a stand by Bharatiya is completely unnecessary."

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The eighth schedule of the Indian Constitution recognises 22 languages. According to Articles 344(1) and 351, these are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri.

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