Education at elementary level should be in the mother tongue of the child and Parliament should pass a legislation on the issue, president of Tamil Nadu Yuva Shakti Ketireddy Jagadeeswara Reddy said.
Addressing media here on Tuesday after launching the campaign at the temple of Sun God at Arasavilli near here, Mr Reddy said Parliament should pass a legislation to protect the rights of linguistic minorities in all States. Every State should honour this fundamental right of the child to have elementary education in mother tongue and ensure that it is implemented in all schools, corporate, private or government.
While the issue of the campaign arose out of the decision of the Tamil Nadu government to close Telugu Medium schools, it is an issue concerning all linguistic minorities in every State across the country, he said.
The Telugus in Tamil Nadu faced lot of ridicule when they were demanding that Telugu Medium schools not be closed as the State government failed to properly enforce the rules on having all official correspondence in Telugu, he said and demanded the governments of the Telugu states properly enforce the laws.
No funds for research
Even after declaring Telugu and Kannada classical languages, the Centre was not able to provide funds for research and other associated projects in view of a case pending in a high court. Mr Reddy wanted the Telugu States to take the initiative and move the Supreme Court and quash the case. The case needs to be handled carefully and proper documentary evidence of the Classical Status of the language should be presented. If the State government puts up a weak defence it would affect the pride and future of crores of Telugu people in both the States, he said.
