Having a dig at the National Democratic Alliance Government, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that while the Centre was doing only “lip service” for promoting Sanskrit, the state government was ready to give land if the Centre wanted to set up a central university in UP.
“The Sanskrit litterateurs have demanded Central university status for Sampurnanand University. The state government can only recommend this. But if the Centre wants to set up a central Sanskrit university, the state government is ready to give land and extend other facilities,” Yadav said at a function held here on Thursday to felicitate Sanskrit scholars.
During the function, the Sanskrit scholars raised the demand for central university status for Sampurnanand University.
“One thing you people should realise is that the state government can only request the Central government to grant central university status to Sampurnanand University. But the party which matters talks about Sanskrit but does nothing for it,” he said. Yadav said that his government would do whatever was required for promotion of Sanskrit, as it was the mother of all languages of the world.
“We cannot ignore Sanskrit, which is the mother of all languages. The Samajwadi Party government, in the past and at present, has always given importance to promoting this language,” he said. Yadav recalled how former Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav had worked for promotion of all Indian languages during his rule.
“Netaji (Mulayam Singh Yadav) worked for promotion of all Indian languages, including Hindi, Urdu and Sanskrit. This government is following on the path shown by Netaji,” he said.
The Chief Minister also lauded the role of Mariyam Siddiqui in promoting Sanskrit.
UP Assembly Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey, who was also present at the function, said that Sanskrit should be promoted in a big way as it was related to the country’s culture and tradition.
Yadav honoured 22 Sanskrit scholars and also hounored Acharya Ramyatan Shukla with
Vishwa Bharati award. It is the highest Sanskrit award given by the UP Sanskrit Sansthan which carries a cash award o Rs 5.01 lakh along with a citation and a shawl.
The other prominent Sanshrit scholars who were awarded includes Maharishi Vyas awards of Rs 2.01 lakh each to Dr Prabhunath Dwivedi and Dr (Mrs) Sashi Tiwari while Acharya Jaishanker lala Tiwari, Dr Anand Kumar Srivastava, Dr Dharmendra Kumar, Acharya Ravindra Nagar and Acharya Ram Kishore Tripathi have been given special awards of Rs 1.01 lakh for their contribution for the lanuage. Ten Veda pandits were also given Rs 51,000 cash awards.