In a rare show of unity, a day after Anandpur Sahib MP Manish Tewari raised the demand that Punjabi be included in the list of official languages in Jammu and Kashmir after a new bill approved by the Union Cabinet left it out, BJP-ally Shiromani Akali Dal MP Sukhbir Singh Badal and National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah echoed the demand during Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha.
Mr. Badal said Jammu and Kashmir had been for many years part of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh’s Sikh empire and that Punjabi was spoken by a large number of people in the State. He pointed to Dr. Abdullah, former chief minister of J&K and said, “Dr. Abdullah will bear out what I’m saying, he himself speaks fluent Punjabi.”
Dr Abdullah acknowledged that Punjabi was indeed spoken widely in the Union Territory and said it needed to be included in the list of official languages of J&K, and added that Pahadi and Gojari language too should be added to the list.
The Union Cabinet had recently approved a Bill wherein Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi along with previously recognised Urdu and English were to be the official languages of Jammu and Kashmir. Government managers said that Bill would be tabled in the current Monsoon Session of Parliament.
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