Modi govt made zero progress on demand for declaring Marathi as classical language: Congress

The Congress on Sunday, 5 May alleged that the Modi government has made "zero progress" on the demand for declaring Marathi as a classical language, asserting that Marathi has a rich literary tradition of 2,200 years.

Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that the demand has been pending with the Modi government for the last 10 years.

Former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had constituted a committee comprising Marathi language experts under the chairmanship of eminent scholar Prof. Ranganath Pathare, he pointed out.

The report was submitted to the Union government, and former CM Chavan wrote to the then minister of culture Shripad Naik requesting him to fulfil the demand in July 2014, Ramesh said in a post on X.

"Ten years later, the Modi Sarkar has made zero progress on this front," he claimed.

Ramesh also pointed out that between 2004 and 2014, Manmohan Singh's government had given classical language status to the following languages --“ Tamil (2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada (2008), Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013) and Odia (February 2014).

"The 'Modi Sarkar' has given classical language status to zero languages," he said.

Ramesh said Marathi has a rich literary tradition of 2,200 years, and the earliest inscription in Marathi (called Maharashtri Prakrit) belongs to the 1st century BCE.

It is certainly not an offshoot of any other language and has evolved independently of local dialects, the Congress leader said.