Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Dayanidhi Maran on Tuesday alleged that taxpayers' money was being wasted by providing simultaneous interpretation of Lok Sabha proceedings in Sanskrit due to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideology, prompting Speaker Om Birla to hit back saying Sanskrit has been the primary language of India.
A visibly upset Birla said simultaneous interpretation of House proceedings was not limited to Sanskrit alone but other recognised languages too.
"Simultaneous interpretation will be available in Hindi and Sanskrit," Birla said.
Soon after the Question Hour concluded, Birla said he was happy to announce that six more languages — Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Manipuri, Sanskrit and Urdu — have been included in the list of languages in which simultaneous interpretation was available for members.
He said besides English and Hindi, simultaneous interpretation is available in Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odiya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.
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When Birla made the announcement, DMK members started raising slogans prompting the Speaker to ask Maran what his "problem" was.
Maran said while he welcomed simultaneous interpretation of official state languages, he had objections to Sanskrit interpretation as it was "not communicable".
He cited the 2011 population survey to claim that Sanskrit was spoken by 73,000 people. "Why should taxpayers' money be wasted because of RSS ideology," he said.
Birla hit back, asking the DMK member which country he was residing in.
"This is Bharat and its primary language has been Sanskrit. I said 22 languages, not Sanskrit alone. Why do you object to Sanskrit. There are 22 recognised languages in Parliament. Simultaneous interpretation will take place in Hindi as well as Sanskrit," he asserted.
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