Previously Sikkim was not a part of our country. After emergency such a situation arose that Sikkim became a part of India.

geographically. It was given a status of a State under our Constitution. When the Constitution was being written, when the provision for languages was being made,

by Statt. Dil Kumari Bhandari_496

when the official Languages Act was being made, then a great mistake was done by not treating Nepali at par with other languages of India.

There was an excuse and a reason for that. Now when Sikkim has become an integral part of India, and Nepali is the official language of that State then there is no justification for not including it in the 8th Schedule of the constitution. So the language issue is also one of the reasons for the present day attack on the federal structure of the country. Rich and long history and long tradition of a language should not be the only-criteria for including it into the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. Regional languages must be considered for inclusion in the constitution as they are the mirror of cultural heritage, history and traditions of the region. If we want the unity of the country also went and to maintain harmony in the country, we must include these two main languages of Eastern India in the Constitution. It will help the culture and heritage of that region mingle with the-main stream Indian culture.

With these words, I support the bill which has been resented by Shrimati Dil Kumari Bhandari, because today growing separatist tendencies in eastern India are using language as an excuse, and as an inciting force. This excuse must be out an end because great linguist like Sunit Kumar Chatterjee had said that it is true that Manipuri is spoken in a limited area but a very few languages of India are as complete as this language. Such is the view and opinion of that great learned man and thinker. All the Sanskrit Granths whether it is Ramayan or Mahabharat or Tripitakas of the Prakrit language or other religious scriptures have been translated in Manipuri language. The entire literature of Sanskirt has been translated into Manipuri. From the point of view of the riches greatness and property of language, Manipuri has a claim to be included in the constitution of India.

With these few words I support the bill introduced by Shrimati Dil Kumari Bhandari. I would like to request the Government that this should not be neglected only on the plea that this bill has been presented by a private

497 Const. (Amend.) Bill (Amend. of Eighth schedule)

Member. I want that the Government itself for the purpose of winning the hearts of the people of eastern India, should present this bill as a Government bill. With this, I would like to thank you also, for giving me an opportunity to speak.

16.00 hrs

[English]

SHRI SAIFUDDIN CHOUDHDURY (Katwa): On behalf of my party, I also sincerely thank Shrimati Dil Kumari Bhandari for brining forward this important Bill. Truly, she is voicing the sentiments of many Members form various parties who moved similar Bills as private Members' Bills in this very House. Unfortuniatly, in the past,those Bills could not be adopted by this House. But on this occasion, I fervently appeal to the Treasury Benches and to the Government to adopt this Bill unanimously. All the political parties of our country are in favour of inclusion of Nepali and Manipuri in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. Shri Advani has referred to one Private Member's Bill that was adopted in this House and made into a law. And I have in my hand fourteen such instances where, Private Members' Bills were passed in this House with the cooperation of the Government and made into a law. With regard to the present Private Members's Bill also I demand similar treatment.

Sir, this Bill is very important in the sense that over the years,people are agitable over this very sensitive issue. Cases for the inclusion of Nepali and Manipuri in the Eighth Schedule of our Constitution have been presented very strongly by the mover of this Bill as well as other hon. Members. I also want to remind this hon.

House that there is no case for this House or for the Government to deny inclusion of these two languages. As a matter of fact, I have no objection if a third language is also taken into consideration. For example, there is a demand that Konkini should also be included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. Nobody can give any rational explanation as to why some languages are included in the Eighth Schedule, while some other languages which

by Statt. 498 Dil Kumari Bhandari

are equally developed, equally capable of creative expression in literature, in science and in various aspects of life, do not find a place in the Eighth Schedule and-dinned recognition. Can this sort of discrimination be allowed to continue any longer in our country? Can there be two types of treatments accorded to different languages? If somebody asks me a question as to why Bengali is there in the Eighth Schedule and why Nepali is not there, I really have no explanation.

Shri Subhash giving may say that Nepali should not be included in the Eighth Schedule because it is a foreign language because it is spoken in a foreign country. This is a very wrong argument. Then English orginatd as a foreign language could not be included in the Eighth Schedule,

SHRI MANORANJAN BHAKTA: (Andaman & Nicobar Islands): Did he object really?

SHRI SAIFUDDIN CHOUDHURY: There was some reference in the news papers. I really do not know. My point is that it is not are all necessary to create this sort of confusion. I do not know why this- redherring be introduced into this. It is a very old demand that Nepali should be included in the Eighth Schedule. This is the demand of all the parties and different parties have given support to this demand. Long ago,just after Independence, the Communist party demanded that these two languages should be included in the eighth Schedule. Sir, the four State Assemblies of our country, West Bengal Assembly, Tripura Assembly, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim Assembly, unanimously passed a resolution not once but many a times but despite that it the Government continues to deny recognition to this language the people living in that part of the country will feel further alienated and they will fall victim to different fissiparous tendencies, a language should be the vehicle of unity. We cannot allow this language question to bring disunity in pur country. It is an age old language. I was going through the history of its development and I found that in the year 1975 the Nepali language was recognised as a major Indian Language

499 Const. (Amend.) Bill (Amend. of Eighth schedule)

[Sh. Saifuddin Choudhury]

by Sahitya Akadami. I found that the Nepali was Introduced as a vernacular subject by Allahabad University In 19911 and by Calcutta University In 1921. Nepali is the medium of instruction upto the Degree level in North Bengal University and is an elective subject for Honours and PHD students. Nepali is also recognised for the public service commissioner examination West Bengal. Nepali is the medium of instruction In west Bengal Secondary Education and Central Board of Secondary Education. West Bengal Government and also North Bengal university has set up a Nepali Akademi. This is the principal language of broadcast in Gangtok station of All India Radio and Karsing station of All India Radio. I think it is not necessary for me to enumerate all these things. But the question is we have to be sensitive to understand that any delay will be fatal in this respect.

I do not understand that if there is no financial implication, then why certain languages are mentioned in the 8th Schedule and certain others are denied of this right.

Similarly, we all know that Manipuri is an age old language. It is more than 2000 years old. It Is very rich In expressing; literary flavours, in expressing thoughts of human mind. It has a very rich heritage. These people have been agitating for a long time. They came here In New Delhi and undertook fast. We met these people. The agitating that has been going on in Manipur was referred to by Advaniji. They have a feeling of frustration and they are agitated over it. They may say that If their language Is not recognised then they will not allow any programme in other language sheened on their land. We do not consider it to be a secessionist's movement; it is a rightful movement of people of Manipur. They came here and we took them to the Prime Minister of our country. We submitted to the Prime Minister, a Memorandum stinged by more than two hundred Members of Parliament belong to various Parties. We submitted to the Prime Minister, a Memorandum signed by more than two hundred Members of by Statt. Dil Kumari Bhandari 500

Parliament belonging to various Parties. I must tell you one thing.

The discussion that we had with the Prime Minister was positive for the first time. He said that; " That kind of rigid closed mind the Government had before can no longer. The list has to be broadened." He gave an indication I am very happy for this -that for three languages, the Government's thinking is at a very advanced stage. If that is the case and if what the Prime Minister had said had been conveyed, to the Home Minister., then he should not have any problem In giving a clear commitment and also no problem in giving a clear commitment and also no problem in really helping this private Member's Bill to be adopted in this House. This is very important. We have to very seriously dwell upon the aspect of language issue.

We have so many languages, developed and lese developed and under-developed. We also have the dialects. We were not at all informed about them. We are a very big and a great country composed of so many languages and what is wrong, if the world is told about it in a proper manner, in a statutory manner that this is the country where 2000 languages are spoken. It includes various dialects also.

We believe that we should keep our unity and integrity intact. If we give due recognition to all such languages, then what hrm that will do? We have a wrong notion. we have a wrong way of thinking that only by an authoritarian imposition of this language or that language, we can really safeguard the unity and integrity of our country. No, By forcibly imposing a privilege on a particular language and denying the same privilege to other languages we are not helping to keep the unity and integrity intact. We are not helping unity to grow. We are really helping diuscumty to spread among the people.

In respect of languages, our a tittle is very clear. Some languages are there in the country which do not have a script of their own. Such a language was there in Tripura. Kogbarak language is there. Previously, they did not have the script of this language.

When, our Government came to power, we tried to help then and rally developed a script

501 Const (Amend.) Bill (Amend. of Eighth schedule)

for it. It Is not the Party, but the people, the research workers, the experts, who did that. This has to be the democratic attitude.

People should be allowed to think about their expressions; their education; their communication with the Government in their own language and so on. Only by giving this kind of right, can we create a situation where, voluntarily, people will accept one language as the link language and not as a kind of imposition, as a kind of privilege and denying the same privilege to others. So also, If anybody Is really Interested for promotion of unity in the Interest of unity, as a link language in our country It is at the heart of our Members- then he must also be very sincere to ensure that all other languages, the demands for which are there in our country that they should be duly reconginsed and should be given a proper place. This is very important. That is why, I do not want to take much of your time but this demand Is a democratic demand and should be accepted. This is also supported by a democratic movement.

If we are rally working scientifically, If really our mind is working scientifically, then we should not delay this.

So, I conclude by saying that there is nothing sacrosanct about not broadening the list of Eighth Schedule. There is nothing like R.

We should riot be afraid of that. If we allow these three languages or two languages, then some other demands may also come.

We should not be afraid of that; we are not going to lose by that. We have to allow flourishment of the genuine aspirations of the people; and by that way only we will be helping this country's unity to be stangthened; and all the achievements that we had In the past would really make further achievement with the rich heritage that we have to carry forward for new civilisation.

With these words, I hope this Government will come forward and really support this Bill and does not delay inclusion of these demands any further that have been made through this Bill.

by Statt. 502 Dil Kumari Bhandari

SHRI A. CHARLES (Trivandrum): I am thankful to you forgiving me this opportunity to participate In this very Important discussion.

Shrimati Dil Kumari Bhandarl has Introduced this Bill for Inclusion of Manipuri and Nepali 16 the Eighth Schedule thereby giving some sort of more recognition to these two rich languages.

As we all know, the scope of a Private Members Bill is often limited in the sense that under ordinary circumstances it is not the procedure or convention of this great House to pass a Private Members' Bill; but It does give an opportunity to highlight an issue, to bring to the notice of the 96-use a matter of urgent public Importance and through the discussion to the whole country about the need for this urgent business. To that extent, this Bill gas served a great purpose, through I am not supporting the passing of the Bill. I am happy to convey the hon. Member, Shrimati Dil Kumari Bhandari who has moved this Bill, that I am In total agreement with the contents of the Bill and the spirit of the Bill. I may be excused for this. After hearing the hon. Leader of the Opposition and hon. Member from West Bengal, Shri Saifuddin Choudhury, If I, may say I was not inclined to tell that till I heard the speech of Mr. Saifuddin Choudhury, I may remind him what transpired during the National Front Government. The Marxist Party was supporting it. There was a categorical assurance by the then Prime Minister, Shri V.P. Singh that Nepali Language would be accepted. But that still remains a problem.

When the Janata Government was in power from 1977-80, at least Shrimati Dil Kumari Bhandari may know, the then Prime Minister said that Nepali was not an Indian language. You should not forget that .

SHRIMATI DIL KUMARI BHANDARI (Sikkim): That was sufficiently opposed and condemned the Nepalese speaking people ,of India. and the Government of India, which is now being ruled by the Congress Party stated that Nepali is not treated as

503 Const (Amend.) Bill .(Amend. of Eighth schedule) [Shrimati Dil Kumari Bhandari]

'foreign language. Are you contradicting that? He said that he agreed with the letter and the spirit of the Bill. But then, he says he can not support the Bill simply because one hon. Member from the opposition had supported the Bill. I am really very sorry. if this is the feeling in democratic country of which we are proud of being the greatest living democratic country in the world. If the member from Ruling Party feels like that, I am really very sorry.

MR. CHAIRMAN: At the end of the debate, you can reply.

SHRI A. CHARLES: I am really said that I am totally misunderstood by the hon. Member. What I said was that after hearing Shri Saifuddin Choudhury, I was telling him, that the Prime Minister during the period 1977-80, said that it was not an Indian language and I am telling that Nepali is an Indian language.

SHRI SAIFUDDIN CHOUDHURY: We did not accept the formula of the then Prime Minister. We condemned that attitude and it was not accepted by anybody in this House.

SHRIMATI DIL KUMARI BHANDARI: For that matter, Shri Morarji Desai-with all due respect to him you consider whatever he had said - said that the annexation of Sikkim was not proper. Can you accept it?

He said that Sikkim's merger was annexation and it was greatly condemned by both the Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. If you go by his words, then you have to leave out Sikkim also. That is my contention.

SHRI A. CHARLES: I am sharing your concern. I am with you. I am telling you that I am supporting the Bill and its contents and I may at this point of time, go even a step forward, by saying that if Nepali is not an Indian language, to say so, it is as good as to say that Nepalis are not Indians. Can you say that? They are very much in the mainstream. They are the proud citizens of this country. We can never forget the great leadership given by the Nepalis during the by Statt. Dil Kumari Bhandari 504

freedom struggle. They are the flesh and blood of this country and my honest conviction is that as quickly as possible they should be brought to the main- stream of the country. There is no doubt about it. But the question is, as posed by Shri Saifuddin Choudhury, there are other languages, there are other claims and all those should be considered by a responsible Government and I do say that even in West Bengal, the statistics show it - I stand corrected -that there are about 277 languages- or dialects only in West Bengal and almost 35 of them are foreign languages and 18 out of the 277 have only some scripts. The others are dialects.

What I mean is to say that every language has to be given equal importance may be easy, but it is not possible. Nepali is a rich language. It is a developed language. We do not have any doubt about it-on this side of the House. But it is only a question of procedure.