Asks Parliament Secretariat why it allowed language not listed in Language Commission
KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 23
The Madhesi Commission has raised objection to Madhesi lawmakers taking the oath of office and secrecy in Madhesi and has sought an explanation from the Federal Parliament Secretariat for letting them do so.
As many as 28 lawmakers were sworn in in their mother tongue yesterday, including three of them - Janmat Party Chair CK Raut, Binita Kumari Singh, and Anita Devi from Janmat Party - in Madhesi language, Parliament Secretariat's Assistant Spokesperson Dasharatha Dhamala told THT.
The Madhesi Commission is concerned that the three Madhesi lawmakers were sworn in in a language that is not listed in the Madhesi Commission.
Chairman of the Commission Vijay Kumar Datta told THT that the commissionhad written a letter to the Parliament Secretariat expressing its concern about the gaffe. "We have asked the Parliament Secretariat to explain on what basis it approved oath in Madhesi language.
Madhesi is not listed in the Language Commission," Datta said.
He said Bhojpuri, Maithili, and Awadhi were languages that were spoken in Madhes and listed in the Language Commission, but not Madhesi.
"We have asked the Federal Parliament Secretariat to clarify what exactly is Madhesi language," he said.
Meanwhile, Raut's effigy was burnt in Saptari today for taking the oath of office and secrecy in Madhesi.
Maithili Sahitya Parishad President Satish Kumar Datta, ilovemithila.com President Vidyanand Yadav, and Milap President Ramila Shah have issued a press release claiming that an oath taken in Madhesi language is illegal. They said Raut had also insulted Maithili-speaking people by doing so. They said all those who took the oath in Madhesi should be sworn in again.
Anita Devi, another lawmaker who took the oath in Madhesi, is the sister of Sanjay Sah, who is in jail for causing a blast at a rally organised by Maithili speaking people who were demanding that Province 2 be named Mithila and Maithili be its official language.
A Maithili-speaking activist said Anita, Raut, and Binita had caused a linguistic explosion in the Parliament by taking oath in Madhesi.
However, Advocate Mohana Ansari thinks that the controversy over swearing-in in Madhesi is needless.
Ansari said Raut and others had only exercised their fundamental right by taking oath in their mother tongue.
A version of this article appears in the print on December 24, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
