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New Delhi, Aug. 9: On Tuesday, minister M.K. Alagiri will have to forgo his big moment — the chance to reply to one of the most awaited Lok Sabha debates — because he speaks neither English nor Hindi. The discussion is to be on the Bhopal gas tragedy and, as chemicals and fertilisers minister, M. Karunanidhi's son should have had the last word by right. But a combination of constitutional provisions and parliamentary convention stands in the way of the DMK minister from Tamil Nadu. His deputy Srikanta Jena will fill in, a parliamentary affairs ministry source said. With Alagiri expected to be in the House, it will be the first time a deputy minister responds to a Parliament debate in his boss's presence. Alagiri's presence in the House can lead to more embarrassment for the government if the Opposition decides to be mean and insists that he and not Jena take the microphone. Alagiri had refused when he was asked if he would speak, saying he was fluent only in his mother tongue, Tamil. The government's floor managers had thought of asking environment minister Jairam Ramesh to stand in, but eventually decided on Jena. The situation is ironical because the DMK's rise in Tamil Nadu politics owed much to its anti-Hindi movements before and after Independence. Alagiri's plight had prompted the DMK to press the Centre to tweak the rules. Article 120 of the Constitution says parliamentary business should be transacted in English or Hindi but empowers the Chair to allow a member who "cannot adequately express himself in Hindi or in English to address the House in his mother tongue". But officials said that traditionally, ministers were not offered the choice. "The article is discriminatory. We'll insist on amending it because ministers who do not speak English or Hindi are disadvantaged by it. They don't get a chance to make an impact in the House," said Alagiri's sister and DMK Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi. Sources said the DMK was banking on Trinamul Congress support for its demand for amending Article 120. The "English-Hindi bias" has been a thorny issue in Parliament. For instance, business rules say that question hour will be conducted in English and Hindi but add a proviso that some see as "unfair". If an MP asks a question in English because he doesn't know Hindi, the minister can still reply in Hindi — whether or not the questioner understands the language. In 1978, a member, A. Bala Pajanor, had objected to junior minister Larang Sai replying in Hindi to a question he had asked in English, but was overruled by the Chair. The Chair had also clarified that MPs could not ask questions in a third language because it would be impractical to try to translate from so many languages. Parliament's computerised interpreter system is designed to translate proceedings simultaneously from English to Hindi and vice versa, and from other languages such as Assamese, Kannada or Tamil into Hindi and English. But the facility doesn't always work smoothly in these languages. Alagiri, who had played truant from the House till the Speaker spoke to him, answered his first question as minister last week in the Lok Sabha, during question hour. "Question number 161. A statement A to E is laid on the table of the House," is all he said, in English. Jena was left to field the supplementaries. |
(source: The Telegraph: Author: Radhika Ramaseshan)
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