NEW DELHI: Continuing with his govt’s ‘decolonisation’ project, Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday launched an Indian languages section within the department of official language as a step towards dispensing with the role of English in official communication.“It would prove to be a milestone in the path to freeing administration from the influence of foreign languages,” Shah said as he announced the formation of Bharatiya Bhasha Anubhag.So far, English had been relied upon for easy and faster official communication and filework between the Centre and non-Hindi speaking states and also among the latter. “We will definitely win the battle against imposition of English upon us,” Shah, who over his six-year tenure in MHA has ensured that all filework and official communication in MHA is carried out in Hindi, declared at the launch of the Indian languages section on Friday. Elaborating on the purpose of Bharatiya Bhasha Anubhag at a press conference last year, secretary in department of official language Anshuli Arya had stated: “Just like Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speeches in (non-Hindi speaking) states get instantly translated and can be heard by the public in their respective regional language, the Bharatiya Bhasha Anubhag, in collaboration with Centre for Deployment of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), will put in place a universal translation system for official communication.” “For instance, if the chief minister of Tamil Nadu writes a letter to the Centre in Tamil, the Union minister here can read it in his language and have the reply sent in Tamil. This will help bring the regional languages on to the centre-stage,” Arya said.In his address on Friday, Shah said the Indian languages section had made the department of official language “complete” by providing a strong and organised platform to all languages, incorporating the linguistic diversity of India. Shah underlined that the Indian people’s potential can be fully exploited only when their process of thinking, analysis and decision-making are in their mother-tongue. “Every language of ours is completely connected with other languages and development of all languages is not possible without each other…they assimilate like rivers into the Ganga of Indian culture,” the Union home minister stated.
