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Language issue could rock Vajpayee's boat

George Iype in New Delhi

The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government's move to study the feasibility of treating all 19 languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution as official languages will open a Pandora's box of linguistic and administrative problems.

Prime Minister Vajpayee will shortly set up a committee to review the Union government's language policy, after being pressurised to look into the sensitive language issue when All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief J Jayalalitha first demanded official language status for Tamil.

Sensing that acceding to Jayalalitha's request would unleash similar demands from linguistic groups across the country, the BJP-led coalition has promised to study the feasibility of making all Constitutionally-approved languages as official languages.

But officials in the department of official languages at the home ministry say the BJP government's move to appease Jayalalitha's linguistic appetite will lead to unimaginable bureaucratic nightmares.

"If the government decides to make all languages official, it will result in administrative chaos in the country," an official in the department told Rediff On The NeT. "It will force the government to appoint thousands of additional employees in various departments," he added, saying the move will multiply government expense many times over.

Officials say the language committee, when set up, will have to study the history of the language agitation in India, apart from thoroughly reflecting on the efficacy of amending Article 343 of the Constitution, which provides for Hindi in the Devanagiri script and English as the official languages of the country.

"But such an amendment will be met with tremendous opposition from political leaders, linguistic groups and tribal sects who are demanding more languages to be scheduled in the Constitution," the official observed, and added, "Jayalalitha's language demand is not like her ultimatums on the Periyar dam and the Cauvery water disputes. It has the potential to put the government on a sticky wicket."

At present there are two official languages in India -- Hindi and English -- and all government documents, papers and notifications have to be translated and printed in both languages.

When the Constitution was framed, it had authorised the government to continue the use of English as an official language till January 25, 1965. But in 1963, Parliament enacted the Official Languages Act which provided for the continued use of English in addition to Hindi as official languages of the country.

While English is being used for purposes of communication between the Union and a state which has not adopted Hindi as official language, it does not however prevent such a state from using Hindi for correspondence with the Union.

But if Tamil and other national languages are accorded the same status as Hindi and English, it would mean that all the documents, resolutions, general orders, court judgments, rules, notifications, press communiqués, administrative reports, licences, permits, contracts and agreements from the Union and the states would need to be translated in all the 19 languages.

Such a move would also mean all parliamentary papers -- reams of which are printed in Hindi and Enlgish when the two Houses are in session -- would have to be provided in all the 19 languages.

If all the 19 national languages are made official, then each and every government department in every state and all the central government offices would have to keep translators for all languages in hand.

"There will be a communication breakdown between the states and the Union, and between various departments if the country is to have 19 official languages," warned an official at the home ministry quoting a similar incident in Uttar Pradesh earlier.

As UP chief minister, Mulayam Singh Yadav had issued an order making Urdu an official language of the state stipulating that all police stations in the state must record complaints in Urdu.

Yadav's language policy, of course, created a lot of job opportunities for unemployed Muslim youth, but it also resulted in administrative confusion in the state over language.

In the south, where language has historically been an emotive issue, it should be interesting to see if Jayalalitha will use it as a political weapon in case Vajpayee backtracks from her demand. To jog one's memory, the undivided Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had, in 1967, routed the Congress and come to power on a strong wave of Tamil sentiment following the massive anti-Hindi agitation.

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