Naujawan Bharat Sabha and Punjab Students Union (Lalkaar) held ‘Mother Language Convention) at Teachers Home, Bathinda in which hundreds of youth participated from across different districts of Punjab and Haryana, marking a successful conclusion to three week long ‘Maa Boli Chetna Muhim’. The gathering at the convention stood out against the linguistic oppression and proclaimed the rights of people’s languages. Famous writer and activist associated with ‘Punjabi Bhasha Pasaar Bhaichara’ Mittar Sen Meet and Mahinder Singh Sekhon, Naujawan Bharat Sabha General Secretary Chhinderpal, Punjab Students Union(Lalkaar) President Gurpreet Singh, Textile Hosiery Kamgaar Union representative Rajwinder and political activist Doctor Jagjit Cheema presented their views. The stage was presided by Manav.
Starting the address, NBS leader Chhinderpal described language struggle as part of broader class struggle whereby language becomes the medium to carry forward the radical legacies of people. Therefore the ruling class has always tried to curb the radical traditions of people by depriving them of their mother tongues. The speaker further talked about the linguistic divide that was forced upon the people of Punjab in 1947 and 1966 which resulted in a great loss to Punjabi language. After this speaker Mittar Sen Meet expressed his views on how Punjab government is neglecting the Punjabi language implementation in government offices and other institutions and how even after twelve years the government is not implementing the provisions of Raj Bhasha Act 2008. Meet advocated Punjabi to be associated with employment and told the audience about the efforts being made by his association ‘Punjabi Bhasha Pasaar Bhaichara’ in this regard. Following Meet, political activist Dr.Cheema talked about how the Central governments policy of cultural nationalism by imposing Hindi as the national language of whole country is proving dangerous for hundreds of regional mother languages of India. These attempts of the government need to be resisted at every step.
Talking at the end, student leader Gurpreet shared his experiences of taking this campaign among the students. He said that the Punjabi University, which was established for the promotion of Punjabi language, is also not doing its job as even the syllabus course books are not yet fully available in Punjabi. Gurpreet said that in the near future their organisation will push for this demand that the competitive exams be held in Punjabi also as this provision is already being implemented in Southern States where students can give exams in their own mother languages. Apart from these speakers Mahinder Singh Sekhon (Manmatta Punjabi) and Union leader Rajwinder shared their views. The mass gathering expressed agreement with the view that this struggle should be taken a step forward so that the government can be pressurised to implement Punjabi at administrative level and to make Punjabi a language with employment creating opportunities.
At the end various motions were passed which included - opposition to Modi governments policy of oppressing various regional mother languages of India, opposing imposition of Hindi as national language and a demand to declare all languages of India as national languages, solidarity with people of Rajasthan struggling to get their language an official status and a motion pertaining to unjust sentence handed to people’s leader Manjit Singh Dhaner and expressing solidarity with thousands of people struggling in front of Barnala Jail to get the mass leader released.
The convention was concluded by taking out a march in the city whereby slogans ‘Bhashai Daaba Murdabad’, ‘Maa Boli Zindabad’, ‘Hindi Angrezi thopni band karo’ were echoed.
