(a) whether the Ministry of Home Affairs has recently issued any instruction to Government Departments to use Hindi compulsorily in their social media communications; and
(b) if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government to the concern expressed by the people in the non-Hindi speaking States of South India?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI KIREN RIJIJU)
(a) & (b): The Department of Official Language issues circulars from time to time for implementation of official language policy as per the Official Languages Act, 1963 and Official Languages Rules, 1976. In compliance to the same, D.O. No. 12015/13/ 2013-OL(Tech) dated 17.09.2013 has been issued.
In continuation of the same, O.M. No. 12019/03/2014-O.L.(Deposited) dated 10.03.2014 has been issued to all Central Government Ministries / Departments / Subordinate Offices / Undertakings / Corporations / Banks and officials of Government of India to use Official Language Hindi or bilingual (Hindi and English) on official accounts of social media. It was also requested to issue necessary directions to all the attached/subordinate offices/ undertakings etc. located in ‘A’ Region i.e. Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi and UTs of Andaman & Nicobar islands.
In compliance of the above Ministry of Home Affairs issued circular No 11020/01/2013 -Hindi dated 27th May, 2014.
From the above, it is quite clear that the circular issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs was applicable only to Central Government offices and employees working in Region ‘A’ and the same is not applicable to State Governments.
The issuing of this circular is a part of routine official work. Hence, there appears no cause of apprehension for people in the non-Hindi speaking States.