Live translation of legislators’ address: CM Yogi slams oppn for Urdu translation demand
the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly witnessed a heated argument between chief minister Yogi Adityanath and leader of opposition in the state assembly Mata Prasad Pandey
On the first day of implementation of live translation of members’ address, the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly witnessed a heated argument between chief minister Yogi Adityanath and leader of opposition in the state assembly Mata Prasad Pandey who demanded including Urdu translation and opposed inclusion of English translation.
“You send your kids to English medium schools but don’t want the same facility for others. Rather, SP members want to promote Urdu to make the children maulvis. You oppose every good work done in the state whereas the UP government is working to enrich all the languages. They (SP) want to take country towards fanaticism,” the CM said.
The house witnessed a heated exchange as speaker Satish Mahana announced the live translation would be available in four regional languages -- Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Braj and Bundeli -- as well as English.
Yogi said, “The languages, including Bhojpuri, Bundeli and Braj, have originated from Hindi. The U.P. government has constituted various academies to promote regional languages. The members in the state assembly have come from various background. Several of them don’t speak fluent Hindi but are comfortable in their mother tongue. They can use the facility provided by the house.”
Pandey objected to the live translation facility introduced in English language along with Awadhi and Bhojpuri in the state legislature. “I oppose English being imposed upon members in the house. Why not the facility is in Urdu,” Pandey said.
“Samajwadi Party members had launched a movement against English and were also lodged in jails. The decision of the assembly to provide English facility will be opposed. We will not allow the BJP government to convert the assembly as a house of upper class people,” he added.
When asked about the war of words in the house, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, who was in Saharanpur, said, “A survey revealed BJP tops among parties in hate speech and in the BJP, the UP chief minister leads the list. Someone is giving a medal to him for all this.”
SP leader Shivpal Singh Yadav wrote in a tweet, “Why are you (UP CM) troubled with Urdu? Does the Constitution not speak about equal respect to all languages?” On Monday, the U.P. legislative assembly launched the facility for live translation of the members’ address to Hindi if they prefer to speak in the house in Awadhi, Braj, Bundeli or Bhojpuri.
Moreover, if the members want to listen to the address of others in any of the four regional dialects (Awadhi, Braj, Bundeli and Bhojpuri), they now have the facility to select the respective channel on their respective seats to listen to the live translation in their ear plugs. As the house has Hindi as its official language, the members using any quotes/words from English are asked to provide a Hindi translation of the same.
The house will have the facility of live translation to the dialects and vice versa. Finance minister Suresh Khanna said the additional language facility will allow people in other states and country to listen to the U.P. assembly proceedings. “We are not imposing English nor made it compulsory for the members,” he said. The languages introduced in house via translation facility for listening are Awadhi, Braj, Bundeli, Bhojpuri and English.