New Delhi (SunstarTV Bureau): In the proceedings of Rajya Sabha, the use of regional languages has increased over five times between 2018 and 2020 with Chairman Venkaiah Naidu regularly urging the members of the House to speak in their native languages.
According to the Upper House’s statement, “During this period, four languages as Dogri, Kashmiri, Konkoni, and Sonthali have been used for the first time since the Rajya Sabha came into being in 1952 and another 6 languages Assamese, Bodo, Gujarati, Maithili, Manipuri, and Nepali have been used after a long gap.”
Accordingly, Hindi and English are the widely used languages during the proceedings of the House. The use of 21 other scheduled Indian languages ‘other than Hindi’ has increased to over five times, 512 percent, per sitting in 2020 over that of the 14 year period between 2004 and 2017.
Notably, Rajya Sabha members used to speak in the House with 10 scheduled languages ‘other than Hindi’ on 269 occasions during 923 sittings between 2004 and 2017 at the rate of 0.291 percent. Besides, in 2020, 49 interventions in regional languages were made during 33 sittings at the rate of 1.49 per sitting, marking an increase to 512 percent.
