The Raj Thackeray-led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) threatened to launch an agitation against imposition of Hindi language examination on state government gazetted officers and employees.
The MNS move came shortly after the Maharashtra government’s Language Directorate scheduled an examination on June 28 to test the proficiency of government officials serving in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in the Hindi language .
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Significantly, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena has also indicated its opposition to the state government’s move. Meanwhile, the MNS is already running a campaign to ensure that auto rickshaw and taxi drivers in the state use Marathi when communicating with passengers.
While the Maharashtra state government has yet to publicly issue a detailed clarification about the exact purpose behind the scheduled Hindi language examination for serving government employees, Marathi language activists and the MNS questioned the need for such an exam in Maharashtra, where Marathi is the official language.
Interacting, with media persons here on Wednesday, senior MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande said, “The government is trying to impose Hindi through the backdoor.” We have insisted that Marathi language should be spoken, since Marathi alone is the official language of Maharashtra. So, if the government imposes Hindi language on state government employees in this manner, we will protest strongly at examination centres if the June 28 test is conducted”.
“The state government alone will be responsible for whatever happens at examination centres on June 28 if it conducts the examinations. The state government is deliberately trying to please its brothers who sit in Delhi,” Sandeep Deshpande said.
“Before conducting such exams, the state government should first explain why government officials should learn Hindi. The government is secretly trying to make Hindi compulsory. This is the BJP’s agenda of ‘Hindu, Hindi, Hindustan’, but we will never allow this to be implemented here in Maharashtra,” MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande said.
The MNS has consistently advocated greater usage of Marathi language in government offices, businesses, schools and the public transportation sector.
Opposing the state government’s move, linguistic organisation Marathi Abhyas Kendra President Dr Deepak Pawar said, “Hindi is not the official language of Maharashtra. In any case, the average Marathi person has enough working knowledge of Hindi language. So making government employees undergo an annual examination in Hindi language is sheer mischief and an insult to the state’s official language of Marathi,” warning of protests if the examination is conducted on June 28.
“Why is a Hindi language examination mandatory for state government employees in Maharashtra? Are such Hindi language exams conducted in other non-Hindi speaking states like Tamil Nadu or Karnataka? Is such an exam held in Gujarat or West Bengal? Or has the Maharashtra government itself put this burden of conducting Hindi exams on the shoulders of Marathi speaking employees? When more attention needs to be paid to the knowledge of Marathi, which is the official language of Maharashtra, of government employees, the state government is wasting both time and money by conducting unnecessary Hindi exams,” Dr Deepak Pawar said.
“The Marathi Abhyas Kendra strongly condemns this government move and demands that the Hindi examination should not be conducted. The state government should immediately announce the cancellation of the proposed Hindi exam. Otherwise, we are warning that an agitation will be held in front of the Language Directorate office, and all responsibility for whatever happens will lie with the Language Director, Language Secretary and the Minister of the Language Department,” Marathi Abhyas Kendra President Dr Deepak Pawar said.
