CM Fadnavis’ assurance amid controversy

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said the compulsion for students in the state to learn Hindi has been removed in a new order, and now any Indian language can be chosen as the third language. Speaking to reporters in Dehu, Fadnavis said English is widely promoted but Indian languages ​​are often ignored and said controversies over languages ​​are unnecessary. The state government on Tuesday issued an order saying Hindi will generally be taught as the third language to students from Classes 1 to 5 in Marathi and English medium schools. The revised government resolution (GR) states that Hindi will generally be the third language instead of being compulsory, and if 20 students per class in a school express a desire to study any Indian language other than Hindi, they have been given an option to opt out. Some pro-Marathi organisations accused the government of reintroducing the policy through the “backdoor” after initially backing out, and the opposition Congress accused the government of “stabbing” Marathi people in the chest. MNS chief Raj Thackeray asked what was the need to “impose” Hindi on students and appealed to state schools to thwart the government’s “hidden agenda of deliberately creating linguistic divide”. He asserted that Hindi is the state language of some northern states and it is wrong to impose it on Maharashtra, where Marathi is widely used.