The Union Cabinet on Thursday has decided to bring the Official Language Bill for Jammu and Kashmir. The new bill will be introduced as the Jammu and Kashmir Official Language Bill – 2020 in the ensuing session of Parliament. The bill allows the State to have Urdu, Kashmiri, Dogri, Hindi and English as its five official languages. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar while briefing the Union Cabinet decisions said that the bill has been conceived following the long-standing public demand in J&K to declare local languages as official languages.
The Centre’s move assumes significance against the backdrop of a recent six-party meeting held last month, comprising Congress, CPM and the J&K regional parties PDP and NC. The parties reaffirmed to tirelessly struggle for the restoration of Article 370. It vowed to not only bring back Article 375 and 35A, but also implement a separate constitution for J&K while restoring its Statehood to what it was before August 5, 2019.
A ruling party MP said, “J&K returning to its earlier status before August 5, 2019, is a lie. As we cannot undo the reorganisation of United Andhra Pradesh, so is the case with the J&K.”
The only option left is to upgrade J&K from its current UT status to that of a State with its own Assembly. Any attempt to re-merge the Union Territory of Ladakh has to be approved by both houses of the Parliament, he added.
Thus, there is no possibility of J&K geographically returning to its earlier status. Further, people speaking Dogri, Kashmiri, Bhoti (Ladakhi), Purgi feel that they were imposed with Urdu and their mother tongues have been neglected for the last 70 years in the United J&K.
Once the bill becomes an act, then, the hitherto neglected languages will also get funding and priority to promote them. Any political party meddling in such sensitive issues in the name of restoring earlier status to J&K would cost dearly to them, politically speaking.
The strategic strikes by Modi’s Government has left the opposition and regional parties in J&K clueless, staring blankly at the future.
