Hindi Not Opposed To Regional Languages: Union Minister

Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra on Friday said Hindi is not competing or opposed to regional languages.

He also said that Hindi is a language that is easily understood by the people of India and some oppose it only for political reasons.

The Minister of State for Home was presiding over the Regional Official Language Conference in Thiruvananthapuram organised by Department of Official Languages under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.

In fact, Hindi is India's own language and is the sister of other regional Indian languages, Mr Mishra noted.

Mr Mishra said the Department of Official Languages has created and developed a memory-based translation system called 'Kantasth' which increased the speed and quality of translation in government offices.

So far, this tool has included about 22 lakh sentences. Usability has increased further as more new features have now been added, including Neural Machine Translation.

The Department itself is strengthening Hindi through e-Mahasabdakosh and other technological means.

Addressing the programme, Kerala Governor Arif Muhammad Khan said that India is a land of pluralism and it is rich in thousands of languages, including dialects.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin had on Wednesday claimed that the ruling BJP at the Centre has made it a practice to "impose Hindi" on non-Hindi speaking states.

"The importance shown to Hindi is not only ignoring other languages, but also amounts to destroying them," he had said.

Department of Official Languages Secretary Anshuli Arya, Principal Accountant General Sudharmini, DOL Joint Secretary Meenakshi Jolly among others were present on the occasion.

The Governor presented awards to central government offices, banks and institutions that have shown excellent performance in the language of administration in various categories.

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