Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MP Dayanidhi Maran speaks in the Lok Sabha during the Budget Session, in New Delhi on Tuesday, February 11, 2025.
| Photo Credit: ANI via Sansad TV
The Lok Sabha on Tuesday (February 11, 2025) witnessed sharp exchanges between Speaker Om Birla and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Dayanidhi Maran over the inclusion of Sanskrit in the list of languages for which simultaneous interpretation was being made available in the Parliament.
DMK MPs began protesting after the Speaker announced that six more languages – Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Manipuri, Sanskrit, and Urdu – have been added to the list of languages for which simultaneous interpretation was available in the House.
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DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran charged that taxpayers’ money was being wasted by providing simultaneous interpretation of Lok Sabha proceedings in Sanskrit which was “not communicable”.
This prompted Mr. Birla to respond that in “Bharat” the primary language has been Sanskrit. He added that efforts were on to provide interpretation in all 22 official languages, and not Sanskrit alone.
He asked Mr. Maran which country he was residing in.
“This is Bharat and its primary language has been Sanskrit. I said 22 languages, not Sanskrit alone. Why do you object to Sanskrit. There are 22 recognised languages in Parliament. Simultaneous interpretation will take place in Hindi as well as Sanskrit,” he said.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan also hit back.
“Dayanidhi Maran’s unwarranted remarks on Sanskrit are not only in bad taste but also reveal DMK’s selective outrage, hypocrisy, and propaganda when it comes to India’s linguistic heritage. Indulging in divisive politics is the real waste of taxpayers’ money,” Mr. Pradhan said.
“We don’t need to diminish one language to promote another. Appreciate Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for aptly rebuking this attempt to simmer hate and create false binaries between Indian languages,” Mr. Pradhan posted on social media platform X.
Besides English and Hindi, simultaneous interpretation is presently available in Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odiya, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu in Parliament.
Mr. Maran said he welcomed simultaneous interpretation of official State languages but had objections to Sanskrit interpretation as it was “not communicable” and cited the 2011 population survey to claim that Sanskrit was spoken by 73,000 people.
“It [Sanskrit] is not the official language of any State. Why should taxpayers’ money be wasted because of RSS ideology,” he said.
According to the 2011 Linguistic Census, 24,821 people speak Sanskrit in India.
Published – February 11, 2025 09:55 pm IST