Madurai MP slams Hindi reply from Union minister without English translation

MADURAI: Madurai MP Su Venkatesan has condemned a reply he got in Hindi from minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai and sought a reply in English.
In a letter to the minister, the MP cited mentions in the Officials Language Rules, 1976 with regard to the communication with non-Hindi speaking states which say whenever a letter from a parliamentarian is in English, the reply in Hindi should be accompanied by an English translation for the convenience of MPs from non-Hindi speaking areas.
“The reply from the minister in Hindi without a translation in English is violation of the same,” he said and added that solemn assurances given by former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru (in 1963), Lal Bahadur Shastri (in 1965) and Indira Gandhi (in 1967) are honoured by the present government with the unique assurance given to Tamil Nadu and implementation of legal provisions in this regard.
Hoping that the reply from the minister was likely to be for his request for examination centres in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry for the CRPF paramedical recruitment drive, the MP expressed shock over the same and stated that he could not understand as it was in Hindi.
Saying so, he requested officials of the ministry to respond to letters of MPs from Tamil Nadu in English ‘as per the existing practice’.
“This is part of the phased Hindi imposition by the Union government that we have seen since last year. The first was in the second session of the parliament when circulars were sent only in Hindi. After a strong opposition we started receiving it in Hindi and English. MPs from the ruling party were also booing when we spoke in English and raised their voices asking us to talk in Hindi,” the MP told TOI.
Venkatesan added that most Union ministers gave replies to him and other MPs from non-Hindi speaking states only in Hindi for their queries in English, making it difficult for them to understand. “But for one or two ministers, the rest are responding only in Hindi,” he said as he recalled a letter from former chief minister J Jayalalithaa to the Prime Minister (in June 2014) against use of Hindi for official communication from the Centre.