Uproar over use of English as medium

Mar 05, 2011 |

Age Correspondent

New Delhi

The Rajya Sabha witnessed uproar on Friday over the use of English as medium of examination in IITs following which the House was adjournment for 15 minutes. MPs from various parties, including the Congress, criticised human resource development minister Kapil Sibal for being unable to respect the aspirations of regional languages in the country.
The trouble started during Question Hour when Mr Sibal stated that Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are autonomous entities which are free to decide on the language for examination and curriculum. “The government does not impose decisions on IITs. The governing council of IIT decides what language to use for conducting the examination,” he said.
The response evoked sharp reaction from both ruling and Opposition parties. Members criticised Mr Sibal for using English to reply, the minister retorted saying they should ensure that the Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley also speaks in Hindi all the time.

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Telangana MPs protest ‘gag order’
Age Correspondent
New Delhi

March 4: Congress MPs from Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh on Friday entered the Lok Sabha wrapping their mouths with black straps. Through this, they wanted to send across a message that they have been gagged by the party not to speak on the statehood issue.
The issue of seprate Telangana rocked the Lok Sabha for the second consecutive day, as Congress MPs, including Madhu Goud Yakshi, M. Jagannathan, Ponnam Prabhakar, Sarvey Satyanarayana, K. Rajagopal Reddy and G. Vivekananda protested silently. But the two Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) members, K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Vijayashanti, created a noisy scene in the House over the issue prompting the Telgu Desham Party members to counter them. This led to a melee and forced Speaker Meira Kumar to adjourn the House for a brief period. As soon as the House met in the morning, a day after being adjourned for the day, Mr Rao and Vijayashanthi walked towards the well demanding that the government explain its silence on the Telangana issue.

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