Maharashtra halts move to introduce Hindi as the third language for class 1 to class 5 students
Maharashtra government
has put its decision to have
Hindi
as the third language for class 1 to class 5 students on hold for now. The decision was taken after Maharashtra Chief Minister held a meeting on Monday night with state government officials after which the Chief Minister's office announced a 'final decision' on Hindi as the third language only after 'consultations with literary figures, language experts and political leaders'.
The decision is significant as there was growing opposition to the Maharashtra government move to have Hindi as the third language for Class 1 to Class 5 students. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena a party that is being courted by both the Bharatiya Janata Party as well as the Shiv Sena (Shinde) for an alliance for the Mumbai civic polls, had opposed the move to have Hindi as the third language. While students were given an option to study a third language of their choice if more than twenty students opted for it, the Maharashtra opposition slammed the move saying that this was a BJP move to impose Hindi by default as the third language.
The issue has gathered more protests as Hemant Divate, a poet who received a state award in 2021 for his poetry announced that he would be giving his award back in protest against the 'imposition' of Hindi.
by Taboola
by Taboola
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This is the second time that the state government has gone back on its decision on having Hindi as the third language. In April this year the state had issued a Government Resolution where it stated that Hindi would be the third language and it would be mandatory for students from class 1 to 5th. However after protests by the MNS and others the state stayed its decision, on June 17th the state again issued a modified GR where in it removed the word mandatory for Hindi as the third language and gave students an option to opt for any other language provided a minimum of 20 students opted for it.
With civic polls looming and the language issue catching fire, the state government has now again kept this decision on hold.
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