Digital Desk: The Roman Script for Kokborok-Choba (RSKC), a combination of 56 indigenous socio-cultural groups from Tripura, has spoken out against the idea to make Hindi a compulsory subject in the northeastern states till Class 10. "RSKC is neither against Hindi nor Devanagari, but it strongly opposes the coercive imposition of Hindi language and Devanagari script in NE states in general and Tripura in particular," RSKC president Bikash Roy Debbarma told reporters on Friday. He Stated.
"Language
is a state matter, and the RSKC believes that making Hindi obligatory in the
Northeast is a clear violation of constitutional provision." In terms of
script, the RSKC opposes the Central Government's attempt to impose Devanagari
on languages that do not have their own scripts.
"The
Union government has no authority to impose Devanagari on any language minority
against their desire or choice. The right to choose is a fundamental promise
that cannot be taken away ", he explained. Mr Debbarma stated that the
people of the Northeast are peace-loving, but making Hindi obligatory for the
people of the Northeast is a "ill-move," which RSKC believes would be
counter-productive.
He
also encouraged the Central Government not to make Hindi obligatory in the NE
states, but rather to leave it up to the people. "Indigenous people,
including Kokborok speakers, should have the freedom to choose their own script
for their mother tongue," he stated. In response to an inquiry on the
script for Kokborok, Mr Debbarma stated that "almost 90% of indigenous
people prefer the Roman script for Kokborok." Even after the formation of
two language committees previously, the script for Kokborok, the native dialect
of about 80% of 19 indigenous groups in Tripura, could not be finalized.
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