This article is from Jul 26, 2021

Did RTI reply claims that if India has a national language then it is to be Tamil ?

Claim

Department of Central official languages has replied to an RTI query. It said that there is no specific national language for India and if it has one then it should be Tamil which is the world’s ancient language.

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Explanation

It is usual to have a discussion on social media about India’s national language. But it is a fact that there is no specific Indian national language.

Social media posts have made the claim that the Department of Central official languages has replied to an RTI query stating the Indian national language. The viral news card also claims that the department has replied that it should be the world’s ancient language Tamil if India has a national language.

What is the truth?

On 15th July, ‘News7 Tamil’ has published news stating that India doesn’t have a national language. But a news card claimed to be ‘Puthiya Thalaimurai’s’ contain the information, “India doesn’t have a national language; If it has one then it should the world’s ancient language Tamil – replied Central official languages department”.

When we searched on the official page of ‘Puthiya Thalaimurai’, no such news card was found. The viral news card seems to have removed the logo and the channel name. When we spoke to the Digital team of ‘Puthiya Thalaimurai’ they denied saying that they have not posted such news.

RTI

When Pandiaraja, a social activist from Thenkasi raised a question on the injuries caused to elephants by trains in English, RTI reply was in Hindi. Few others too received such replies. At this juncture, social activist Pandiaraja has raised an RTI query related to Indian languages to the Ministry of Home Affairs. The ministry has forwarded the questions to the department of central official languages.

The department of central official languages has replied, “ India doesn’t have any national language. There is also no such rule on the language in which RTI queries are to be replied to. And it is not a punishable offence when a person replies in Hindi to an English question. Official languages rule, 1976 does not apply to Tamil Nadu”. This piece of information is published by ‘Kalaignar Seithigal’ on July 17.

Conclusion

Indian official languages department has replied that India doesn’t have any national language. But they have not said anything as the Tamil language has to be the national language if India has one. Hence, it is evident that it is a fake news card that was spread.

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