DIMAPUR — The Naga Rising (TNR) has alleged that the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a nationwide cleanliness drive on a Sunday (October 1), is the latest instance in a series of the “BJP’s subtle moves to advance its Hindu-Hindi nationalist expansionism.”
The TNR in a press release said that under the direction of the Government of India (GoI), it has become routine to hold official events on Sundays.
“Only recently, the Government of Nagaland hosted a Union minister to launch the ‘PM Viswakarma Yojana’ in an event held in Kohima on a Sunday,” the TNR said.
It said that the deliberate attempt to downplay the significance of sacred days of Christians is in complete disregard for people’s sentiments in Nagaland, and only creates suspicion and distrust of the Modi government.
“One cannot and should not be blind to the multipronged strategy of the Hindutva forces within the BJP who are trying to establish a Hindu cultural hegemony. At one level, the BJP government has been pushing for laws and policies that support its cultural expansionist agenda,” the release stated.
The TNR maintained that since ‘Modi-BJP’ came to power in 2014, official documents, naming of laws and government policies and programmes are invariably in Hindi.
It also pointed out that in August this year, the BJP-led government introduced three bills in the parliament to overhaul the criminal justice system in the country: all the bills were given Hindi names.
Similarly, the names of all the Prime Minister schemes are in Hindi, the TNR said.
“By raising this issue, it is not to say that we are anti-Hindi as a language. However, learning Hindi language should be a matter of choice, not an imposition. Giving Hindi names for government laws and schemes is a form of Hindi imposition on those who do not know the language,” it said.
Affirming that the that Nagaland government must object to moves of the BJP-led government that disrespect Nagas faith and way of life, the TNR also said that the Neiphiu Rio-led government should insist that all laws, policies, central schemes or programmes must be provided with alternate English names.
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