Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday announced the extension of translation services to six new languages in Parliament, including Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Manipuri, Urdu, and Sanskrit.

Addressing the House, Birla said that previously, translation services were available in 10 languages—Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu—along with Hindi and English.

“Now, we have included six more languages—Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Manipuri, Urdu, and Sanskrit. Additionally, as human resources become available, we are working to provide simultaneous translations in 16 more languages,” he said.

“India’s parliamentary system is a democratic framework that offers translations in multiple languages. When I discussed at the global level that we are making efforts to provide translation services in 22 languages in India, it was widely appreciated on international platforms”, the Speaker highlighted.

“Our goal is to eventually include all 22 officially recognized languages,” Birla added.

DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran opposed the inclusion of Sanskrit, questioning the allocation of public funds for a language spoken by only around 70,000 people, according to census data. He argued that Sanskrit was not widely spoken in any Indian state and criticized the move as being influenced by ideological motives.

Birla dismissed the objection, stressing that Sanskrit was India’s “Mool Bhasha” (root language). He reiterated that the initiative aimed to incorporate 22 languages, not just Sanskrit, and emphasised the importance of linguistic diversity in the parliamentary system.

(ANI)