Unprovoked wars are not intended to achieve a lofty goal but to advance a partisan ideology. BJP has a penchant for starting unprovoked wars. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) are examples. They were not designed to fulfill any felt necessity. Both CAA and UCC were pushed by the RSS-BJP to create discord among Hindu and non-Hindu communities.

The central government has blown the bugle of another unprovoked war, this time on language. The so-called ‘three language formula’ (TLF) was first mooted by the Radhakrishnan Committee. It was dead-on-arrival. No state has ever implemented TLF.

There were many reasons. The first priority was naturally given to building schools and appointing teachers. The second was universal enrollment and keeping the children in school. Next was to improve the quality of teaching — not only of languages but of other equally important subjects like mathematics, science, history, geography and social studies. Those tasks are incomplete after 78 years of independence.

Language became an explosive issue not because of ‘education’ but because of Article 343 of the Constitution. It declared that Hindi shall be the official language of the Union but English shall continue to be used for a period of 15 years. The fifteen years ended in 1965. An unthinking government declared that, with effect from January 26, 1965, Hindi would be the sole official........

© Indian Express