ANDALIB AKHTER
NEW DELHI: After a long time the Indian parliament once again witnessed a broad debate on the language of Urdu. On Thursday members cutting across party lines in the Lok Sabaha made a strong plea for development and promotion of the Urdu language.
Besides secular parties BJP too made strong recommendation for the promotion of the language. BJP deputy leader in the Lok sabha and an MP Shatrughan Sinha praised the language as any other lover of the Urdu.
Raising the issue during zero hour Samajwadi party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav alleged that systematic attempts were being made to "kill" Urdu language. He said it was not the language of only the Muslims, but the entire country and added that the Urdu media had played an important role in the Freedom struggle.
A demand raised by Yadav for a fair deal to Urdu and the language journalists and newspapers , led to an impromptu discussion in the House in which Union Ministers Mamata Banerjee, Farooq Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Azad too participated.
The Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress leader and Mamata Banerjee utilise the occasion to make a strong pitch for reservation for minorities.
BJP deputy leader Gopinath Munde making a common cause with Yadav, as also Lalu Prasad of the RJD and BSP’s Dara Singh Chauhan to press for greater efforts for promoting the language.
CPI and CPM too sung paeans for the language and Banerjee recited several Urdu couplets to show that she "loved" the language very much.
Banerjee said 30 per cent of her home state West Bengal’s population spoke Urdu and there was need for an Urdu University and scholarships for Urdu students, apart from making learning of the language compulsory in both schools and colleges.
TMC MP Sudip Bandhopadhyay asserted that his party would fight against any injustice to the language.
Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad regretted that some editors of Urdu newspapers met him and detailed the plight of the Urdu newspapers for want of advertisements.
"The problem is that Urdu does not have a state, though newspapers in the language were being brought out from all regions including the South," Azad said.
Speaker Meira Kumar asked the government to heed to the overwhelming sentiments of the members on the pitiable condition of the Urdu language and its media.
Responding to the discussion Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the entire House was united and expressed solidarity on this issue. He said : "Urdu is an integral part of our rich national heritage and government will take all steps to strength it. I can assure you all appropriate steps will be taken."
Finance Minister reminded that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had already instructed Information and Broadcasting Ministry to ensure that Urdu media "get due share of government-funded advertisements" through DAVP.