Jammu Redefining
| March 23-April 5, 2014
Jammu Redefining
5
To divert attention from failures of UPA govt Omar compelled to rake up 2002 riots
By Parul Mahajan
J
AMMU AND KASHMIR Chief
Minister Omar Abdullah currently campaigning in the
Rajouri and Poonch districts on a
four day tour is compelled to rake
up the issue of 2002 riots to woo
the electorate in support of alliance
candidate Madan Lal Sharma.
On third day(Wednesday) in succession Omar devoted larger part of
his speech to drive home the point
that BJP's PM nominee Narendra
Modi is yet to say sorry to the large
number of innocents killed in the
2002 riots in Gujarat.
Omar is repeatedly taking pot
shots at Modi and while comparing
him with Congress Vice President
Rahul Gandhi.
Omar is deliberately doing so to
divert the attention of the common
masses from the more important
issues of rampant corruption, lack
of good governance and failure of
the UPA govt in tackling the price
rise, unemployment and dealing
with the menace of terrorism in the
past 10 years of misrule.
Without making mention of
Kishtwar riots which rocked the
state in August 2013 Omar is passionately revisiting 2002 Gujarat
riots and repeatedly targeting
Narendra Modi. On Wednesday
even Dr Farooq Abdullah said, if
voted to power Modi will destory the
country."If this man (Modi) sits on
the prime minister's chair, he will
destroy India's Constitution. People
of every religion have right to live
but this man says one thing and
does the other," Abdullah told a
public meeting.
The meeting was organized jointly
by the National Conference and its
alliance partner Congress to seek
people's support for coalition candidates for ensuing Lok Sabha polls
in the state.
"He (Modi) is the one who could
not respect his elders (in his party),
how could he respect me or (state
Congress president Saifuddin) Soz
or you?" Abdullah said apparently
referring to ouster of Jaswant Singh
from the BJP.
Wooing voters, the NC president
said "some people might have been
hurt - be that Congress or NC workers. I seek forgiveness from them
but this is not the time to ask what
we have done or not done."
"It is the time to think about the
country. That is why I am telling you
not to keep a grudge against us.
Beta, Bucket Mein Hand Wash Kar Lo...
fore it is indispensable for
economic growth. My contention here is, had it been
true, most of the countries of
Europe such as Germany,
France, Italy or Spain and
those of East Asia like
Japan, China and South
Korea would not have
achieved economic growth
and development. In all
these countries, all formal
and informal conversations
and international transactions take place in the
respective local languages.
Therefore, we need to ask
ourselves, is Hindi or any
other regional language particularly inimical to economic
growth and development?
Second, it is also argued
that changing the medium of
education from English to
Hindi seems far from being
practical and desirable. It is,
however, pertinent to note
here that higher education
including professional courses such as Medicine,
Engineering
and
Technology, in the countries
I mentioned above and
many others is largely in
their respective languages.
Despite this, these countries
could grow and develop
much more effectively than
some English speaking
African countries such as
South Africa or former
British colonies like Fiji or
Jamaica.
Third, English is also
argued to be a thread linking
North India with South India
CMYK
for the purpose of conversation. We are told that a
South Indian would willingly
accept English language but
not Hindi. This informed the
choice of English language
for administrative purposes
soon after independence.
However, the fact remains
that English is a foreign language which is making it
extremely difficult for common Indians to express their
thoughts
effectively.
Henceforth, English as a
linking thread needs to be
replaced by Hindi if we wish
to restore and maintain our
cultural and linguistic dignity.
After all, before the advent
of the British and the introduction of modern schooling, Sanskrit, although
restricted to the literati classes, did play the role of linking thread from Kashmir to
Kanyakumari and Bhuj to
Bengal. Why can't Hindi do
the same as Sanskrit did in
the past? Ideally speaking,
all Indians must attach primary importance to their
respective regional languages, with secondary
importance given to the
national language Hindi, followed by the global language English, if not for writing, at least for conversational purposes.
Fourth, it is not uncommon
to see middle-class Indians
interacting with each other in
English within India as well
as abroad. Undoubtedly, it
has become a status-symbol. However, it is quite com-
mon to see two Germans (or
for that matter, Italians,
French,
Chinese
or
Japanese)
continuously
conversing in their respective mother F