(DEBATE)
IAS Ministers know the public pulse well. IFS Ministers even do not recognize Common men.
S Sisodia
Govt cares for the state language ?
Don't think the govt does not care for the state language. After India became an independent country, its constituent states were reorganized on the basis of a language formula. However Punjab was the last state to be reconstituted on this formula on Nov 1, 1966, based on the census of 1961.Since then every year 'Punjabi language week' is celebrated from Nov 1 to Nov 7. The importance of such weeks like the celebration of International days has been dwindling over the period. Punjabi language was spoken in a very vast tract before the partition of the country, though 'urdu' was the official language of the state. When the agitation for the Punjabi suba was going on, many communal people made vigorous campaigns across the state to motivate the like-minded people not to mention Punjabi as their language during the census and they succeeded. Since Punjab was politically truncated, the language Punjabi was ignored in the newly constituted states, but it got lesser importance in Punjab itself. The Revenue record was originally prepared in Urdu. Although it was changed to Punjabi language later on, yet the original Urdu words still dominate the revenue record.
The govt has been showing to the public that it was serious about the Punjabi language by legislating, ‘The Punjab Official Languages Act 1967’. By this Act 'Punjabi' became the official language of the state on Dec 29,1967. I remember, during those days the govt officials started learning as to how to sign in Punjabi in Gurmukhi script, instead of learning the language. In the year 2008,''The Punjab Official Languages Amendment Act was passed, which made Punjabi compulsory in the govt offices, subordinate courts, and in all schools till class 10.This Act initially jerked the govt offices to use Punjabi, but gradually this legislation has lost sheen and impact. Now English is predominantly being used in govt offices. In the years 2004 ,2009, I performed election duty in Rajasthan and Bihar respectively and in these states entire work is being done in their state languages. I remember, in the year 1977, in Sangrur, its deputy commissioner always used Punjabi in his office. Once, he got his right hand fractured and used left hand for writing notes on files. One senior officer once remarked, ''sir, since you are writing with left hand, the writing is not coming good. ''The deputy commissioner immediately said, ''Sajje hatth naal mein iss tton v bhairha likhda haan.'' This officer later on became administrative secretary, but till retirement he always wrote on files in Punjabi. In my 38 years of service, I have found only him, who always used Punjabi. There was another deputy commissioner in the 1980s,who in his first meeting with his staff said, ''Please use English only while writing notes on the files.'' He became chief secretary and whenever he found any note in Punjabi, he would remark,'' This man is torturing me by writing notes in Punjabi.''
It is a truth that Punjabi is existing largely in exile. The writers' organisations, many film industry people, and good singers are still carrying on the torch of Punjabi. Anyone ,who has heard Nurjehan and Dilip kumar conversing in Punjabi in 1983,would say that the angels were speaking in the heavenly language. In 1988, Raj Kapoor in his last interview to Simi Grewal had said, ''Maa janendi satt, bhag na dendi wand.'' These people relished the Punjabi language. The lackluster celebration of one week and ignoring the mother tongue throughout the year is like many of bad tracks on which the state has been treading.
Surinderjit Singh Sandhu, Amritsar
