Protest that the mother tongues of Tharu, Magahi, Magar, Tamang etc. are not included
The bill presented by the Madhesh state government in the state assembly for the working language has come under controversy. The meeting of the Provincial Assembly held on Thursday was disrupted due to opposition to the language bill. Protests are being made in the provincial assembly meeting and outside as Tharu and Magahi and other languages are not included in the language bill of the province's government employees.
Rani Kumari Tiwari, the education minister of the state government, on Wednesday presented a bill in the meeting of the state assembly to make Maithili, Bhojpuri, Bajjika, Hindi and English the official languages along with Nepali. The Tharu community also has a majority in Madhesh province, and there is opposition that the Tharu language spoken by them is not included in the bill. The Maghi-speaking people have also demonstrated outside while the meeting of the Provincial Assembly was going on on Thursday.
UML MP Rajendra Chowdhury in the state assembly meeting suggested to include Tharu and other mother tongues in the working language bill and demanded to amend the bill. Congress MP Jivchi Yadav protested that the language bill did not include many languages spoken in Madhesh. "Other languages should also be included in the bill," Yadav said, "otherwise we will not allow the parliament to function." Chandan Singh, MP of the ruling Janmat Party, said that the language bill was introduced without discussion. He said that all mother tongues spoken in Madhesh should be included in the bill.
LOSPA MP Jailun Rine expressed his anger that Muslim's Urdu language was not included in the bill . Maoist (Centre) MP Yuvraj Bhattarai demanded that mother tongues like Tharu, Magar, Magahi, Tamang and others should be included. United Samajwadi MP Bechi Lungeli said that it is ironic that the state government, which should protect and develop the language, did not include the original and mother tongue of Madhesh in the bill. Speaker Ramchandra Mandal adjourned the meeting after the controversy over the language bill flared up in the state assembly meeting.
