ME NEWS BUREAU: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor traded barbs in Lok Sabha over making Hindi as an official language of the United Nations.
Tharoor raised his objections to the written statement made by the Minister in the question hour of the Lok Sabha over the government's efforts to push the Hindi language.
Sushma Swaraj said that it is often asked why Hindi is not an official language in the UN. "Now, I want to say that the biggest barrier in pushing the said language is the procedure," the Minister said.
Sushma explained that as per the procedure, two-thirds of the 193 nations in the organisation -which comes to 129 – will have to vote in favor of India and also to bear the financial burden incurred on them.
"Apart from voting, the supporting countries will also have to bear the financial expenses incurred on them. Once we get the support of nations like Fiji, Mauritius, Surinam….where more people of Indian origin are there, we can clear the test", the Minister said.
Later, Shashi Tharoor, former UN Under-Secretary-General and who finished second in the race for UN top post in 2006, questioned the need to push Hindi as the official language in UN. He reminded the Minister that even our country does not consider it as the national language.
"Even our country never considers Hindi as the national language. It is our official language only. Majority of Indian states speak Hindi. But how many countries outside India speak the same language? It will be difficult to convince them to vote in favor of India, considering the financial burden they have to bear", he said.
"I agree that our Prime Minister and External Affairs Minister are excellent speakers in Hindi. But when the people from Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Bengal take charge of their post in the future, how can you make compulsory that they should speak in Hindi?", Tharoor asked.
Tharoor's comments didn't go down well with the treasury benches as the Minister pointed out that many countries outside India speak Hindi as well.
" Saying Hindi is spoken only in India is your ignorance," she said.
