The State government's appeal seeking classical language status for Malayalam lacks sincerity and earnest initiative to achieve the goal, Bharatiya Vichara Kendram director P. Parameswaran has said.
In a statement here on Friday, Mr. Parameswaran said at least this was what the ‘‘unfortunate message conveyed through the contradictory statements'' made by Minister for Education and Cultural Affairs M.A. Baby and Poet O.N.V. Kurup.
He said the Minister had publicly stated that the Union government should waive certain mandatory conditions prescribed for awarding classical status in the case of Malayalam, indirectly admitting that it had got certain disqualification for the same.
Meanwhile, Prof. Kurup, who was also a member of the high-level delegation that had taken up the matter with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi the other day, was of the opinion that Malayalam richly deserved classical status and was in no way inferior to the other three South Indian languages which had already been awarded classical status.
‘‘Two members of a high-level delegation taking such a contradictory stand itself showed the casual attitude and callous indifference of the State government in pursuing the matter seriously,'' he alleged.
Mr. Parameswaran alleged that the government had not even taken the general public as well as the media into confidence before taking up the case with the Union government. The government's approach itself appeared to be a hypocritical one, he alleged.
