Hindi-Tamil tug of war at Ayush programme
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CHENNAI: Yet another language row is brewing as yoga and naturopathy practitioners working under the Tamil Nadu government have flagged concern over the ministry of Ayush organising a national-level training programme for yoga instructors only in Hindi.
As everything the instructors said went over the head for the participants from Tamil Nadu, they requested the instructors to explain things in English. According to some participants, their suggestion did not go down well with Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, secretary of the ministry of Ayush. The officer allegedly said that all those who don’t understand Hindi could leave the session, adding that he couldn’t speak English well. When the participants sought to reason out with him, he said he would identify the “problem creators” and take up the matter with the senior officials of the state government for initiating action against them.
The three-day virtual training of master trainers for Ayush health and wellness centres organised by Morarji Desai National Institute of the ministry thus ended up stoking a new linguistic controversy. The new education policy has already evoked strong criticism from TN political parties over its alleged favoritism towards Hindi language. Kotecha’s outburst happened on the final day of the training programme. Lack of proper communication was a problem right from the beginning of the programme on August 18, said the participants. Out of 400 participants from across the country, 37 were from Tamil Nadu. “We requested the trainers to speak in English as we don’t understand Hindi.
Participants from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala also demanded the same. But a large section of participants raised their voice, saying Hindi is the ‘Rashtra Bhasha’ and the instruction should be in Hindi only,” said one of the participants from TN.
So, much of the programme was Greek and Latin to the participants from the south, he said. Even those who know English chose to speak only in Hindi, said a representative of the Indian Naturopathy and Yoga Graduates’ Medical Association.
At the end of the first day, the association wrote to secretary Kotecha, requesting him to break the participants into two groups and conduct the programme for people from the south in English. But it evoked no response.
He was unsympathetic and rude to those who made the request, said another participant. He chose the final day’s session to send across a stern warning to those who were raising the linguistic issue. “If they don’t understand, we should make them understand,” Kotecha said in the meeting.
Since then, Dr Balu Mote, a consultant in the ministry, has been calling participants from TN to identify the “problem makers,” said association representatives. Mote told TOI that his effort was only to avoid such problems in future. He said though the training was predominantly in Hindi, course material was provided in English too. Some speakers spoke in both English and Hindi, he said.
Yet another language row is brewing as yoga and naturopathy practitioners working under the Tamil Nadu government have flagged concern over the minist
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