Manipur students protest against imposition of Hindi in NE region

A large number of students on Friday formed a human chain on the street in Imphal to protest against the Centre’s move to impose Hindi in Manipur and other northeast states.
Leaders taking part in the protest demanded the state governments of the region, including Manipur government, to clarify whether they had given consent to making Hindi compulsory in all eight north-eastern states up to Class X.
Union home minister Amit Shah, in a statement at the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee, had pitched to make Hindi compulsory in schools up to Class X in the eight northeast states.
While making the remark, the Union home minister had added that the Centre had got the consent of the eight states. The leaders cast doubt whether the governments of the eight northeast states had actually given the consent.
“The state governments must ease the doubt. The state governments must declare their stand on the Centre’s move,” DESAM president Leishangthem Lamyanba demanded.
Strongly condemnin the state governments for not taking any stand on the remark of the Union home minister, he said, “The silence being maintained by the state governments compelled us to cast doubt whether the state governments had given their consent.”.
The president demanded that the state government to declare its clear stand on the imposition of Hindi in the state.
Students from various schools and colleges took part in the human chain protest along the Tiddim Road in Imphal’s Kwakeithel area.
The protest was staged under the joint initiative of six students’ bodies –AMSU, MSF, DESAM, SUK, AIMS and KSA. During the protest, the students demanded that they must be allowed to study in their own mother tongues.
“Don’t force us to study Hindi. We are against forced imposition of Hindi. We stand against the move at any cost,” the DESAM said.
He reiterated that student bodies across the northeast region had already declared their stand against force imposition of Hindi and there would be no change in the decision.