The Uttar Pradesh government would soon translate important speeches of CM Yogi Adityanath and government press releases into Sanskrit. The BJP government has made this decision in a bid to promote the usage of the ancient language.
Avaneesh Awasthi, the Additional Chief Secretary of the State Information Department, said, “to promote Sanskrit, significant speeches of the Chief Minister and government information will also be released in Sanskrit, which was done in just Hindi, English and Urdu till now”.
To translate the Chief Minister’s speech, the department has decided to enlist the help of Lucknow based Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan.
An official said, “This is the first time that such a step is being taken. The speech of chief minister (Yogi Adityanath) delivered at a recent NITI Aayog meeting in New Delhi was released in Sanskrit and was well received. Now we plan to expand it further”.
On June 17th, Yogi Adityanath had said, “Sanskrit is in the DNA of India, it is now limited to the work of priests”. At present, there are 25 periodicals that are printed in the ancient language in the state, however, none of them is printed daily.
The Uttar Pradesh government in February gave a major boost to the language by allocating Rs. 242 crores for grants to Sanskrit Pathshalas in the state. Another 30 crores have been allotted to provide a grant to aided Sanskrit schools and degree colleges.
The language has faced several hurdles in the past. In January, a petition had been filed against recitation of prayers in Kendriya Vidyalaya claiming that it creates a lot of obstacles in developing scientific temperament and that it was imparting religious instructions.
Last week in an attempt to preserve and promote the ancient Indian heritage, Union HRD Minister, Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ had said that at least two Sanskrit-speaking villages must be developed near the central institutes. Picking up on the trend of promoting the language, even the West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has challenged PM Modi and Amit Shah to a mantra chanting competition.
