Bodo language deserves official language tag: SK Bwiswmuthiary

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOKRAJHAR: Former Lok Sabha MP S.K. Bwiswmuthiary has demanded that the Bodo language should be made as one of the official languages of Assam inline with the Bengali language in Barak Valley.

Countering the claim of Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over cabinet decision to form Boro Kachari Welfare Autonomous Council (BKWAC) outside BTC districts and using the Bodo language as associate official language of Assam, Bwiswmuthiary said the Bodo language was already declared as an associate language in Assam during late Hiteswar Saikia regime but it should be made official language of the State inline with Bengali language in Barak Valley.

He said the State cabinet took two decisions on October 7 to notify their most ancient, the richest and prestigious Bodo language mere as an associate official language of Assam instead of granting the most deserving and long overdue status of State official language inline with the Assamese language and Bengali language in relation to the Barak Valley.

He also said all conscientious and sensible section of the whole Bodo society including all intellectuals have already known that the Bodo language was recognized as an associate official language by the previous successive governments of Assam in 1984-85 (Hiteswar Saikia Government) and in 2016 (Tarun Gogoi Government) respectively. "Even this mere status has not yet been implemented. Bodo language is not subordinate to Assamese language. It has also been granted the status of one of the national languages of India by an Act of Indian parliament in 2003," he added.

''If Bengali language could become the State official language in the Barak Valley since 1960, why the same status cannot be accorded to Bodo language too, on the same footing?" he questioned. He said the article 345 of the Indian Constitution has already given power to the concerned State governments to grant the status in question to respective language (languages) through a legislation passed by the legislature.

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