See through our eyes, not your ears.

Maharashtra assembly objects to use of Sanskrit

BOMBAY– It was not only Hindi-Marathi conflict that marked the first day of the new house in lawless Maharashtra. The state legislative assembly on Monday virtually saw all sorts of language war, not sparing even Sanskrit – considered to be mother of all Indian languages.

After BJP member Girish Bapat took oath in Sanskrit (Madhukar Pichad chaired the proceedings), another BJP member Girish Mahajan when started taking oath in Sanskrit, Pro-tem Speaker Ganpat Deshmukh objected, saying as per article 210 of the constitution and Rule 22 of the Legislative assembly, a member can take oath in his mother tongue only if he is not well-versed in Marathi, Hindi or English.

Bapat and some BJP members objected to Deshmukh’s ruling, charging the chair was insulting Sanskrit and pointed out that they had always taken oath in Sanskrit.

To this Deshmukh said the issue did not arise earlier because nobody had objected.

“It is only now that the issue of which language a member should take oath in has come up,” he said.

When informed that earlier Madhukar Pichad had allowed Girish Bapat to take oath in Sanskrit, Deshmukh relented and reluctantly granted permission to Mahajan.

Congress member Amin Patel said he could speak in Marathi and could have taken oath in the language, but was doing so in Hindi as a mark of protest against assault on Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi.

Ramsingh Thakur of Congress said he would take oath in both Hindi and Marathi but was disallowed. He then took oath in Hindi only.

- (With inputs from agencies)