On a day when Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik held the Swabhiman Rally in the Capital demanding special status for Odisha, senior Congress leader Niranjan Patnaik flayed him for not being fluent in Odia and demanded that either he should learn the official language or quit the State.
Patnaik has written a letter to law Minister Kapil Sibal seeking amendment in Article 173 to make it mandatory for all MlAs to be able to read, write and speak the language of the State.
He has also sent a copy of the letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders of various political parties for a greater debate on the issue so that a consensus could be arrived for bringing a Constitutional amendment in this regard.
“It is ironical that a Chief Minister, who can’t speak or write the State’s official language is talking of Odia Swabhiman,” the former PCC president said and termed the rally a political gimmick.
It is astoundingly ironical that a person can’t become a sarpanch in Odisha without knowing Odia, but he can be an MlA, Minister or even Chief Minister, he said and demanded that no one should be eligible to be a MlA without knowing the official language of the State.
In fact, the loophole in the Constitution needs to be plugged by a suitable amendment to Article 173 of the Constitution of India and instead add the following clause: Can speak, read, write and understand the official language of the State, he said.
The language issue has been critical to the formation of Odisha. The State Assembly had decided more than a quarter of a century back that Odia will be the official language of the state, he pointed out.
“But, it is a travesty of the democratic Constitution if members elected to the legislature have no sensitivity for cultural nationalism and significance of regional language and flout the norms laid down in Article 345 of the Constitution. Odia is the official language of Odisha and yet the Chief Minister does not read, write, speak or understand Odia, particularly when Odisha happens to be the first State to be formed on linguistic basis.”