Only Marathi language will remain a compulsory in school in the state, no other Indian language will be compulsory; it will be optional, clarified Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
CM Fadnavis further said, "Hindi has not been made mandatory in place of Marathi. Only Marathi is mandatory. But the New Education Policy has given the opportunity to learn three languages. Learning three languages is mandatory. There is a rule that out of these three languages, two must be Indian. Therefore, we have made Marathi mandatory among the two Indian languages. What is the other language? So if you take any Indian language, you will have to take Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati or any other. You cannot take anything outside these."
He made these remarks while speaking at the inauguration of the 99th All India Marathi Literature Conference held at Shahu Stadium in Satara.
It is pertinent to note that his statement came after Marathi Mahamandal president Prof. Milind Joshi said that there was no need to glorify other languages when Marathi was being disrespected. The four-day Sammelan, being held from January 1 to 4, was inaugurated by noted author Mridula Garg.
Fadnavis also said a committee headed by Dr Narendra Jadhav has been formed to decide from which class Marathi should be made compulsory.
Present at the inaugural session of the conference were senior litterateur and intellectual Dr. Mridula Garg, welcome speaker and Public Works Minister Shivendrasinh Bhosale, Rural Development Minister Jaykumar Gore, President of the 99th Literature Conference Vishwas Patil, President of the 98th Conference Dr. Tara Bhawalekar, MLAs Atul Bhosale and Manoj Ghorpade, Pune Divisional Commissioner Dr. Chandrakant Pulkundwar, Mayor Amol Mohite, President of Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Mahamandal Prof. Milind Joshi, Executive President of the conference Vinod Kulkarni, Chancellor of Bharati Vidyapeeth Dr. Shivajirao Kadam, industrialist and patron of the conference Farooq Cooper, District Collector Santosh Patil and office bearers of the Sahitya Mahamandal.
Opposing the glorification of foreign languages, he stated: "I am surprised that we oppose Indian languages like Hindi and sing the praises of English. We carry English on our shoulders. We should also think about why we feel English is close and Indian languages are far away. We roll out the red carpet for foreign languages like English, French and Spanish, but oppose Indian languages. This is not right. All languages deserve respect, though the mother tongue should get the highest respect.”
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