Chennai:
Wondering what is the difficulty in making Hindi a third language in educational institutions, the first bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday observed that if one does not learn Hindi, it will be very difficult to get a job in North India.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice MN Bhandari and Justice PD Audikesvalu said this when a Public Interest Litigation seeking full implementation of the New Education Policy 2020 of the Central Government came before it today.
The petition by Arjunan Alayaraja, secretary of Alamram, an NGO in Cuddalore district, prayed for a direction to the concerned authorities to implement the NEP in Tamil Nadu with necessary modifications to accommodate the Supreme Court’s suggestions in various matters on the issue. Of.
Citing a few instances where eligible persons from Tamil Nadu lost the opportunity to be hired in jobs in North India due to lack of Hindi knowledge, the Acting Chief Justice said, “There is no difficulty in taking up a job in the State of Tamil Nadu. Because the candidates are well versed in the local language (Tamil) but outside the state they will face difficulty.”
The Acting Chief Justice recalled that one of the judges, his brother, could not get a job in the Airports Authority of India because he did not know Hindi, though he was selected. He said that this is the biggest drawback for the people of Tamil Nadu.
When Advocate-General R Shanmugasundaram replied that everyone in the state was free to learn Hindi through institutions like the Hindi Prachar Sabha, the ACJ retorted that ‘learning’ is different from ‘teaching’.
When Shanmugasundaram mentioned that the state was following a two-language system (Tamil and English) as a policy, the ACJ wondered what would be the harm if Hindi was introduced in the three-language policy.
The AG replied that it would ‘overburden’ the students. The ACJ, however, said the only thing to do is to give the option of selecting languages.
“Tamil and English are already there. I think adding a third language (Hindi) will not be harmful,” the ACJ said, admitting the PIL and ordering issue of notices to the authorities concerned, refundable in eight weeks. .
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