What if future PM is from TN or West Bengal?, Tharoor challenges Sushma over Hindi ticket to UN

New Delhi, Jan 3: Discussion on taking Hindi to United Nations led to a spar between  External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Thiruvananthapuram Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor during the question hour session of Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

It all started with the BJP MPs Laxman Giluwa and Rama Devi asking Sushma as to what steps the government has taken to introduce Hindi in UN. Before the Minister could answer the questions that came from her own party MPs, Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram sprang into action and asked “why India should take the effort to make Hindi as one of the languages in the UN, as it is only India’s official language and not the national language,”

He added, “If tomorrow someone from Tamil Nadu or from West Bengal becomes the Prime Minister, why should we force him to speak in Hindi at the UN,”.

Sushma defended her two MPS stating Hindi was also an official language in Fiji, and is also spoken widely in Mauritius, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, among other countries. She also added that the government is ready to pay a huge sum of Rs 40 or 400 crores to get Hindi to touch the world, though UN’s rules does not allow any country to do so. She also added that the neighbouring countries should bear the expense of making Hindi one of the official languages at UN.

Tharoor was not ready to give up and fought back saying, “Hindi has not been given the national language status in India. The Gujarat High Court’s ruling says that it is not the official language.” He also pointed out that, though there are six official languages in the UN, only two — English and French — are working languages, “just like how Hindi and English are working languages in India.”