BJP, RSS want Hindus to opt for Punjabi

By Sarabjit Pandher

CHANDIGARH, MAY 28. The Punjab units of the BJP and the RSS will ensure that all Punjabis, including the Hindus, list Punjabi as their mother tongue during the ongoing census.

This was indicated by two Punjab Ministers, Mr. Balramji Das Tandon, who is number two in the Akali-BJP Government in the State, and Mr. Madan Mohan Mittal. The new stance adopted by the right wing organisations is expected to have far-reaching implications in territorial disputes with neighbouring States, including Haryana.

The two Ministers have reacted sharply to reports quoting the president of the Akali Dal (Amritsar), Mr. Simranjit Singh Mann, MP, as saying he had information that the RSS was urging members of the Hindu community to register Hindi as their mother tongue in Punjab. ``If after staying in Delhi for 30 years, the former Prime Minister, Mr. Morarji Desai had recorded his mother tongue as Gujarati, why should a Punjabi living in the State opt for any other language?,'' said Mr. Mittal.

This is the first time that the BJP, formerly the Jan Sangh, and its allied organisations have taken a decisive stance in favour of Punjabi language in the State. Till now, these organisations have been accused of inciting the Hindus to register Hindi as their mother tongue, a fact their critics still use to charge that the BJP was responsible for allowing some Punjabi speaking areas to be excluded during the re-organisation of the States.

The BJP's national general secretary, Mr. Sangh Priya Gautam, who was here in connection with the organisational elections, said the party would ensure that there was no clash between the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains.

The newly elected president of the party's State unit, Prof. Brij Lal Rinwa, also asserted that the Hindus living in Punjab, especially in the Abohar-Fazilka region of Ferozepur district, would be asked to register Punjabi as their mother tongue. Mr. Rinwa, who belongs to this remote region, bordering Rajasthan and Haryana, admitted that during the last census the Hindus had registered Hindi as their mother tongue. The Abohar- Fazilka belt in the south of the border district of Ferozepur is one of the major regions where the Hindu community completely outnumbers the Sikhs.

Mr. Rinwa's assertion is significant in the light of the age old territorial dispute between Punjab and Haryana, with the latter demanding the transfer of Abohar and Fazilka in lieu of the Union Territory of Chandigarh. Haryana has also laid claim to Abohar and Fazilka, arguing that they were Hindi-speaking areas included in Punjab during the re-organisation. In 1985, when an attempt was made to sort out the inter-State territorial disputes, as part of the Rajiv-Longowal accord, the transfer of Abohar and Fazilka to Haryana was thwarted due to lack contiguity as one village, Kandukhera, registered itself as a Punjabi-speaking area.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : National
Previous : Sankhya Vahini to be operational next year
Next     : Tapti high gas project approved