Acknowledging the fact that not learning Hindi leads to difficulty in getting a job in North India, the first bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday, January 25, wondered why is it difficult to make Hindi the third language in educational institutions.
It was when a PIL petition that sought to implement in toto the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 came up before the bench of Acting Chief Justice M N Bhandari and Justice P D Audikesavalu that they said this.
It was Arjunan Elayaraja, Secretary, Aalamaram, an NGO based out in Cuddalore district, that the petition came from and it prayed for direction to those authorities concerned to implement the NEP in Tamil Nadu. That is after requisite modifications accommodating the suggestions of the Supreme Court in various cases on the issue, as per a report in PTI.
Listing out instances, wherein, qualified people from the state had lost out on jobs in the North because of their lack of knowledge when it comes to Hindi, the Acting Chief Justice, as per a report in PTI, said "for taking job in the state of Tamil Nadu, there is no difficulty because the candidates are well conversant with the local language (Tamil), but outside the state, they would face difficulty." He also said how one of his brother judges couldn't bag a job with the Airports Authority of India because he did not know Hindi, though he was already selected for the job. This is the biggest drawback for the people of Tamil Nadu, he added.
Advocate-General R Shanmugasundaram mentioned that everyone in Tamil Nadu is free to learn Hindi via institutions like Hindi Prachar Sabha, the ACJ passed the remark that 'learning' is different from 'teaching'. When Shanmugasundaram said that the state was following the policy of two language system (Tamil and English), the ACJ wondered what would be the harm if Hindi is introduced in the three-language policy.
The AG replied by saying that it would overburden the students. The ACJ added that the only thing is to give the option of selecting languages. "Tamil and English are already there. I think adding third language (Hindi) would not be harmful," the ACJ said, admitted the PIL and also ordered issuance of notice to the authorities concerned, returnable in eight weeks.
