The Rajya Sabha on Thursday, 6th December, passed the Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak (BVV), 2024 replacing the 90-year-old Aircraft Act, 1934. The bill that was passed in the Lok Sabha in August this year looks forward to facilitating the ease of doing business in the aviation sector.
Amid this, the opposition parties led by the INDI Alliance opposed the bill claiming that the name of the bill had been changed from English to Hindi. Some of them also indicated that the Hindi name of the bill was complicated and that it violated the Constitutional rule.
However, responding to this, Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu addressed the upper house and said that the name was changed to Hindi to showcase India’s heritage and culture and that there was no violation of the Constitutional rule.
“It will be difficult to pronounce the name of the bill in Hindi initially but one will get used to it. Many people seem to feel ashamed to pronounce this name but there’s nothing to feel ashamed of. The intention of the government to name the old bill in Hindi was just to showcase India’s culture,” he said.
आखिर बिल के नाम हिन्दी में क्यों रखे जा रहे हैं?
— SansadTV (@sansad_tv) December 5, 2024
नागर विमानन मंत्री @RamMNK ने बताया भारतीय भाषाओं में विधेयकों के नाम रखने से भारतीय संस्कृति और विरासत को ही बढ़ावा मिल जा रहा है.@MoCA_GoI #BharatiyaVayuyanVidheyak pic.twitter.com/cpaKOz82ZQ
“Under PM Modi, we want to break the cocoon of Colonisation and show the true colors of India. Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak is a mixture of all languages. I am a Telugu and I am proud of my language. Despite this, I support the Hindi name because Bharat is called Bharat in Telugu also. Further Varyu is also a Telegu word. So the name of the bill is half Telugu for me,” he added.
Further, he said that many often pronounce his name erroneously because they can’t pronounce ‘Kinjarapu’, but that does not mean he opts to change his original identity. “People get used to it,” he reiterated.
The Aircraft Act was implemented in India in the year 1934 after which it has been amended 21 times to date. The Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak now seeks to replace the Aircraft Act, of 1934 while still retaining most of the provisions of the Act. It sets up DGCA for overseeing safety and performing regulatory functions, BCAS for overseeing security, and AAIB for investigating accidents.
Bharatiya Vayuyan Vidheyak will regulate and control the design, manufacture, maintenance, possession, use, operation, sale, export and import of aircraft and incidental matters. This bill adds new offences and penalties for them.
The Act also regulates activities related to aircraft including manufacturing, possession, use, and trade. The Act was passed in the Upper House on 6th December 2024.
