AXX faces flak for 'muddling' situation over use of Bodo as first language

From our Correspondent

KOKRAJHAR, February 14: The vice president of the World Bodo Historical Society (WBHS) and a renowned writer of Kolkata, Hiracharan rzary said there was no need for muddling the situation on the part of Axam Xahitya Xabha (AXX) over the use of Bodo as the first official language in Bodoland region.

rzary in a social media site said that the Axam Xahitya Xabha (AXX) and Bodo Sahitya Sabha (BSS) were at war over the issue of language policy to be followed while imparting education to children. He said the AXX perhaps failed to appreciate the tiol Policy on education. A three language formula was devised in the Chief Ministers’ conference held during 1961. The tiol Commission on Education known as the Kothari Commission examined and recommended a graduated formula which was recommended by the 1968 policy. The 1968 policy on three language formula states that the (1) first language to be studied must be the mother tongue or the regiol language; (2) the second language will be some other modern Indian languages or English in Hindi-speaking States, and in non-Hindi speaking States the second language will be Hindi or English; and (3) In Hindi-speaking States, the third language will be English or a modern Indian language not studied as the second language, he said. He also said this position was reiterated by Kiren Rijiju, the Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs on August 5, 2014 vide Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3790. Bodo is no longer a dialect or unscheduled language, but it is now one of the tiol languages of India.

rzary said what the BSS had adopted as its language policy was very much in line with the tiol Policy on Education and in this matter the AXX was unnecessarily muddling the situation apprehending that the Assamese language might become archival in the near future.