PANJIM: The Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu on Friday said that the English mind is an illness, and not the language.
Naidu’s statement came in the background of certain comments attributed to him. During a Hindi Day event held in New Delhi earlier this month, the media had quoted Naidu as saying English is an illness left behind by the British.
“Somewhere I was speaking about protecting and encouraging the mother tongue and some section of the media wrote that I said English is an illness, I did not say English is an illness. English is not an illness, but English mind is an illness which we have inherited from the British.” Naidu clarified
He said, “British have left but they have created an inferiority complex. They have given the thought that British are great, foreigners are great and we are nothing. We must come out of this mentality. We must feel proud of our heritage, our past and our great leaders of this country.”
The Vice-President further said that he had allowed 22 languages, including Konkani in the Rajya Sabha.
“When I was chairman of the Rajya Sabha I implemented small changes in the Rajya Sabha. When any minister wanted to lay paper on the table they used to say ‘I beg to table’. I said begging whom. I said we should say ‘I submit a paper or lay on the table.” he added
Meanwhile, the vice president said there is nothing wrong in learning English or any other foreign language stating that you can learn as many languages as you want maybe Portuguese, Chinese, Russian, there is nothing wrong but we should discuss and debate in our mother tongue.
