Language is an expression not a substance, says Amit Shah. (document)
Vadodara (Guj):
On Saturday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah asked young people to never give up their mother tongue.
Addressing graduates at the 71st Maharaja Sayajirao University of Vadodara graduation ceremony, he also asked them to study the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
“I want to tell all degree holders who do anything in life, but never give up your mother tongue. Come out of this inferiority complex, (mastering a particular) language will get you accepted,” he said. Say it in Hindi.
“Language is an expression, not a substance. Any language can express. When a person thinks, researches, and analyzes in his mother tongue, his ability increases many times. With analysis, his ability also Improve logic and decision-making,” he said.
The leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that one’s mother tongue is the best medium for character development.
“The language of our country has the best grammar, literature, poetry and history and we cannot improve the future of our country unless we enrich them,” Mr Shah added.
For this reason, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had the idea of ”making mother tongue compulsory in primary education” under the NEP, he said.
He also urged graduating students to study the New Economic Policy, which he said would clear their minds about educational usefulness.
The NEP includes “Maharaja Sayajirao’s concept of accessible education, Sardar Patel’s concept of empowerment, Ambedkar’s concept of knowledge, Aurobindo’s concept of cultural and nationalist education, and Gandhi’s emphasis on mother tongue,” Mr Shah said.
He said Baroda’s previous ruler, Sayajirao Gaekwad III, had tried to create an exemplary system of governance.
Dr BR Ambedkar wrote our constitution, which is the “best” constitution in the world, Mr Shah said, adding that he could do it because (early in his life) Maharaja Gaekwad gave him a scholarship.
Gaekwad is dedicated to spreading education, establishing justice, uplifting the poor, providing irrigation to farmers and bringing about social reform. Mr Shah said he was committed to providing compulsory and free education and laid the foundation for the Academy of Fine Arts.
He said the NEP was trying to make education “streamless and classless”.
“When it becomes like this, you are free to think. The purpose of education is not to get a degree, a good job, to gain comfort in your personal life. Its purpose can be to become a whole person, only if education is flow-free Classless, that’s why (Prime Minister) Modiji is trying to do it,” he said.
The Federal Minister claimed that the NEP was the first education policy in the country that was not opposed by any ideological or political party.
Earlier in the day, Mr Shah inaugurated a redeveloped lake in Nardipura and laid the foundation stone for various developments in his constituency of Kalol, Lok Sabha, Gandhinagar.
He also chaired a meeting of the District Development Harmonization and Oversight Council (DISHA) in Gandhinagar.
(Aside from the title, this story is unedited by NDTV staff and published via a syndicated feed.)
