Promoting Punjabi - 26/04/2008

Bibi Upinderjit Kaur,

Education Minister,

Government of Punjab

26 April 2008

Dear Bibiji,

Promoting Punjabi

Promoting the Punjabi language in Punjab is a fundamental duty of every Punjab Government. Therefore, the current initiative of this Akali-BJP government has to be appreciated.

However, the implementation of this worthwhile objective is quite another issue. After all, only pragmatic rules and guidance on this issue will deliver results.

The current policy is deficient in 2 primary respects:

  1. The proposal to enforce this policy in the private industrial and commercial sector is objectionable. In a rapidly globalising and integrating world with Punjabi owned companies headquartered in Punjab reaching out to the far corners of this country and beyond, is it fair to compromise the performance of our industrial and commercial establishments when the universal language of business, the “lingua franca”, is English? How will the junior executive learning his trade in Punjab in Punjabi adapt to the realities of the work place when he is posted out of Punjab? Yes, force the private sector in Punjab to deal with the various arms of the Punjab Government in Punjabi, but elsewhere let English be acceptable.
  1. Can today’s Punjab school kids, the future of the state, the heart and soul of tomorrow’s prosperity, really be expected to compete effectively in adult life, especially in the workplace, just with proficiency in Punjabi? Should it not be the duty of this government to promote English in our schools, colleges and universities, whilst simultaneously promoting Punjabi? Only a cock-eyed government can refuse to accept the reality that today’s graduates can only really succeed in the workplace with proficiency in English.

Surely the bureaucrats and politicians who invariable dispatch there kids to boarding schools outside Punjab followed by university education overseas, and who are now promoting this poorly researched policy, should look themselves in the mirror. Maybe the Chief Minister and his Ministers should start by reviewing how competent their children and grandchildren are in written Punjabi?

This government of tall promises and poor delivery should be promoting Punjabi centres of excellence, where in an exclusively Punjabi language environment students can be taught by our leading Punjabi writers and poets, where media studies in Punjabi can promote Punjabi in journalism, where Punjabi equivalents of the latest English nomenclature in science and technology can be defined, where Punjab’s bureaucrats can be sent for refresher courses in Punjabi, where NRIs keen on graduate and post-graduate studies in Punjabi can send their children, ……

These centres of excellence are required to stop the increased infestation of English in daily Punjabi. Why not base a Global Institute for Punjabi Excellence in Ludhiana, the centre of Punjab?

What about adult Punjabi literacy? This government does not have a single initiative to tackle this fundamental issue. Do not go by this government’s published statistics on literacy for they are based on asking individuals whether they can read and write without any testing. Even UNESCO has confirmed that state literacy statistics in India are vastly overstated by as much as 150%. Why is this Chief Minister content to leave millions of adults in Punjab illiterate in Punjabi? How will they complete the Punjabi forms that the government is now promoting?

Any policy that does not make it a primary objective to promote proficiency in both English and Punjabi is prejudicing the future prosperity of Punjab.

Please accept reality before your poorly researched and drafted policy propels future generations into functional illiteracy and accelerates the exodus of industry and commerce from Punjab.

Kind regards,

Yours faithfully,

Jassi Khangura MLA

Copy:

Governor, Punjab CM Punjab VC Punjabi University, Patiala

VC Punjab University, Chandigarh VC PTU, Jalandhar

VC Guru Angad Dev University, Amritsar VC PAU, Ludhiana

VC GADVASU, Ludhiana VC, Baba Farid Medical Univ.

Chief Secretary, Punjab

Education Secretary, Punjab Industry Secretary, Punjab

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