Madurai MP Su Venkatesan Sunday sent a letter addressed to him in Hindi back to the Ministry of Culture. The letter was sent by the Centre on February asking him to give recommendations for the ‘Gandhi Peace Prize'.
The CPI(M) MP said he could not understand the context of the letter and was fortunate to know the number of the letter since it was in numerals. He added that the format enclosed in the letter was in English and hence he was able to assume that the letter, which was addressed to MPs, was asking him to make a recommendation.
Speaking to indianexpress.com, Venkatesan alleged that the Centre's reluctance to reply in English to representatives of non-Hindi-speaking states is a “well-planned move”.
“I can quote three instances. Last year in Parliament, the notices given to the members of the house were all in Hindi. We objected to it, the speaker intervened and said henceforth all the notices will be served in both English and Hindi. In March, there was again a communication sent to us in Hindi and we protested against it. In November, when I wrote to the Union Ministry of State for Home Affairs requesting examination centres in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry for recruitment of CRPF paramedical staff, I received a reply in Hindi.”
He added, “After this, I approached the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court to ensure all communications between the Centre and the Tamil Nadu state government are in English. The Central government informed…
