CA divided over lingua franca, use of term people's war

Lawmakers from different parties continued to differ on the lingua franca and proposed use of the term "people's war" during Thursday's deliberation at the Constituent Assembly on the concept paper and draft of the Committee to Determine the Basis for cultural and Social Solidarity.

During the discussion, Unified CPN (Maoist) lawmaker Lokendra Bista demanded that the term "people's war" be mentioned in the statute. On the issue of lingua franca, he only said other languages of Nepal should also be given equal status as Nepali language.

Nepali Congress lawmaker Laxman Prasad Ghimire opposed the use of the term "people's war" in the new constitution, saying that it will only imply that the decade-long Maoist insurgency which took thousands of lives was responsible for all the changes in the country including the Constituent Assembly.

Ghimire, however, stuck by his party's official line when it came to lingua franca. He said that Nepali should be the only language that should be used for administrative purposes in the country.

CPN-UML lawmaker Pradip Gyawali, on the other hand, stressed on the need to afford "equal respect" to all the languages in Nepal but said that only Nepali should be used for administrative purposes.

The issue of lingua franca and use of the term "people's war" in the statute has continued to divide the CA with lawmakers from different parties expressing differing views.

While the Maoists are pushing for multilingual policy which affords equal status to all the languages of the country, Madhesi parties are demanding that the constitution should recognize Hindi as the official language of Nepal.

Terai Madhesh Loktantric Party lawmakers have been arguing that much like Nepali is the "link language" in the hills and mountainous districts of Nepal, Hindi is the same in the Terai plains of the country.

They also say that Hindi needs to be recognized as official language because Madhesi people communicate with the people of hills and mountains in the language.

But NC has been thoroughly opposed to the idea of recognizing Hindi as the official language. The NC lawmakers say that it is simply not viable to permit the use of any other languages but Nepali for administrative purposes in the country where 92 languages and dialects are spoken.

However, CPN-UML maintains a middle-ground on this sensitive issue. The lawmakers from the party had earlier demanded a separate language commission to resolve the issue. nepalnews.com July 02 09