by Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati :   Assam’s opposition parties protested against the Centre making Hindi up to Class 10 a compulsory subject for all the 8 states of the Northeast. The proposal to create a Hindi-binding language has been strongly opposed by the North Eastern States including Assam. Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement has evoked a lot of reactions in the North East and there have been protests across the north-eastern states over it. In protest, on April 10, people staged a massive protest in Guwahati, the North East headquarters, and set them on fire.

North East groups opposed the Centre’s move to ‘impose’ Hindi as a compulsory subject in schools. The Assam Sahitya Sabha (ASS) has criticised the move to make Hindi a compulsory subject up to Class 10 in the north-eastern states and asked the government to focus on the conservation and promotion of indigenous languages. In a statement, ASS general secretary Jadav Chandra Sharma said that if Hindi is made mandatory, the future of indigenous languages and Assamese as a contact language would be in jeopardy. Student organisations from the Northeast have warned the central government that the country will burn if the government does not remove the statement. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had on Friday said that Hindi in eight northeastern states will be made compulsory till Class 10.

He described the Hindi as the “language of India”. However, the move has tilted the wings of various outfits. The North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) said that the northeastern state has always had english, Hindi and local language that it should be a three language policy. We oppose this move because it is a kind of imposition. Hindi could be an optional subject,” NESO president Samuel B Jirwa told reporters today, adding that the student body will approach all the state governments in the region to not make Hindi mandatory.He said the Central government repeatedly takes wrong steps on the people of the Northeast and wants to “impose” it by bringing a law against the people. Apart from this, despite the huge opposition from the people of the North-East, the people of the North East have been kept very upset by bringing the Citizenship Amendment Act, CAA. It would be totally against the Constitution, students and youth of the Northeast would not allow this move of the government to proceed. Meghalaya Congress MLA Amperine Lyngdoh said the state is protected by the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution and the Centre will not be able to impose Hindi on the students. Khasi and Garo are the two major languages of our state. So,we cannot allow it (Hindi),she said. The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) in Assam condemned the Centre’s move, calling it “anti-democratic, anti-constitutional and anti-federal system”. Ever since the BJP formed the government in Assam, it has been taking anti-Assam and anti-Assam decisions.

 It has removed the Assamese paper from the Assam Public Service Commission examination. In addition, Hindi speakers have been appointed as teachers in the state schools. It appealed to the BJP-led central government not to pursue the decision and demanded that Assamese be made compulsory in the state’s schools. The Student Liberation Struggle Committee, which is the student wing of KMSS, threatened to launch an agitation. It accused the Centre of attempting to destroy the Assamese language. The influential Young Mizo Association in Mizoram said it will hold a meeting soon and submit a memorandum against the Centre’s move to the state government. Opposition parties, including Congress and AJP, have demanded withdrawal of the decision, which it has termed as against the interests of the people of the area.