Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has decided to take up the issue of restoration of Punjabi as an official language in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah besides taking up the issue in the Parliament also.As per the decision, taken at the party’s high level meeting, presided over by SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, the party would seek a change in the draft legislation seeking to make Urdu, Kashmiri, Dogri, Hindi, and English official languages of J&K by seeking inclusion of Punjabi language in this list.
“There is widespread resentment amongst Sikhs and Punjabis living in Jammu and Kashmir as well as Punjabis worldwide at the discriminatory manner in which Punjabi has been excluded as an official language of J&K by its administration. Punjabi has been given the status of an official language in the erstwhile constitution of the J&K State and this status should be retained in the present dispensation also,” said Sukhbir.Sukhbir assured the party leaders that he would take up this issue forcefully with the Centre as well as raise the issue in the Parliament to ensure the due status of Punjabi language was restored. “Punjabi was embedded in the culture of J&K from the time of the Khalsa Raj and was widely used as a medium of instruction. Punjabi was a compulsory subject like Urdu in J&K till 1981. Any attempt to dislodge it as an official language in J&K is an assault on the identity of the Sikh community in the State,” he added.