Two Indian Parliamentarians argued over making Hindi an official language at the United Nations in the Indian Parliament on Wednesday.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor questioned the need to push Hindi as India’s official language at UN while the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called his statement that Hindi was mainly spoken in India "ignorant".
Sushma Swaraj, in her reply to a question, said: "It is often asked why Hindi is not an official language in the UN. Today, I will want to tell the House, the biggest problem is the procedure."
The Minister explained that in order to make Hindi the official language in the United Nations, 129 of the 193 members of the organisation would have to vote in favour of it which also includes financial expenditure.
"The problem comes when apart from voting, the burden of the amount also falls on them. Economically weaker countries that support us shy away from this. We are working on it, we are making attempts to get support of countries like Fiji, Mauritius, Surinam... where people of Indian origin are there. When we get that kind of support and they are also ready to bear the financial burden, it will become an official language," she said.
However, Mr Tharoor, who has worked in the UN and retired as UN Secretary-General questioned the need to push for Hindi, which he pointed out was not even the national language of India.
"Hindi is not the national language, it is an official language. Seeking to promote Hindi raises an important question. Why do we need an official language in the UN? Arabic does not have more speakers than Hindi, but Arabic is spoken by 22 countries, whereas Hindi is only used as an official language by one country -- us," he said.
"The question is what purpose is being served by this. If indeed we have a Prime Minister or Foreign Minister who prefers to speak Hindi, they can do so and we can pay to get that speech to be translated. Why should we put our future Foreign Ministers and Prime Ministers who may be from Tamil Nadu in a position..." he said.
"The government has to defend its position. I understand the pride of Hindi-speaking people, but people of this country who do not speak in Hindi also take pride in being Indian," he said.
Sushma Swaraj countered Tharoor by saying Hindi was spoken in several other countries as well as by the Indian diaspora abroad. "Saying Hindi is spoken only in India is your ignorance."
In a written reply, she said India was in touch with 129 countries to make this happen.
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