Welcome back, Hindi!

BARRING four or five ministers who are from South India, almost 90 per cent of the cabinet is from the Hindi heartland. Everybody viewed them on TV, taking their oaths in Hindi in the name of God. So far so good. But it was a peculiar situation when the new ministers took charge of their respective ministries; they called the officers and took briefs. The officers understood the need of the hour and quickly adopted the tune of the new dispensation. Even senior bureaucrats who belong to Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala were seen speaking in Hindi with their new bosses. The ministers appreciated the South Indian bureaucrats’ gesture and lauded their efforts to learn the language in Delhi. The language of the Raj is English and there is no compulsion to learn Hindi and work in Hindi, except when celebrating Hindi Week. But if the officials do not adopt the language of their political masters, their days are obviously numbered. So even the top non-Hindi babus are trying to learn the new dictum and follow Mahatma Gandhi’s wisdom, “Hindi should be the connecting language across India”. Finally, Hindi has arrived.