At present, most of the time, we find Central Ministers, and even senior officials like Secretaries of various government departments, briefing the press on important matters only in Hindi even if they can converse in English. This approach deprives the non-Hindi speaking people from understanding the content. The briefing by Dr. Harsh Vardan, Health Minister, about the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), a global problem. As someone who holds a medical degree, I am sure that the Health Minister must be conversant with the English language also and, as such, he could have conversed in English for the benefit of all the non-Hindi speaking Indians as well. It was also amusing to hear him liberally using English terms, particularly medical terms for which there are no equivalents in the Hindi language!
Anna Mary Yvonne,
Chennai
