Balamurugan assumed office as the Assistant Commissioner of the Hindi Cell in the GST Commissionerate in November 2019.
Amid strong opposition to Hindi imposition in the state, an Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer in Chennai has written to the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) against employing officers who do not know Hindi to the Hindi cell in the GST Commissionerate. In a letter addressed to the Chairman of the Central Board of Excise and Customs, he requested that only those who know Hindi and are willing to work to propagate it, be posted in the Hindi cell.
Balamurugan assumed office as the Assistant Commissioner of the Hindi Cell in the GST Commissionerate in November 2019 and has a Superintendent (Sukumaran), an inspector and a staff member assisting him in his work in the cell. “The work of the Hindi cell is to propagate Hindi as the central official language and to monitor its use. I am not interested in that work,” he wrote.
He stated that while two officers in the cell including himself are from Tamil Nadu, the other two are from north India, with Hindi as their mother tongue.
“It is a rule that the notes on the files and letters written in the Hindi Cell must be in Hindi and that the language must be used at least 50% of the time. Neither do I, the assistant commissioner, nor does Sukumaran the Superintendent know to read or write Hindi,” he wrote, adding that the official communication on files is usually done by the other two staff members in the cell. “We sign it without even knowing what is written,” he added.
Pointing out that the inspector who knows Hindi has been transferred out and in his place, another officer who knows Tamil (and does not know to read or write Hindi) has been appointed, Balamurugan stated that since the Hindi cell would now have only officers who do not know Hindi, it would not be possible to write file notings and other official communication in Hindi.
“There is an assistant commissioner whose mother tongue is Hindi working in the Commissioner’s office. Allocating Hindi Cell to me instead of him is a planned action to make me feel inferior due to my Tamil sentiments,” he alleged. Adding that two out of three employees in the Commissioner’s office have Hindi as their mother-tongue, Balamurugan said that it is not right to allocate Hindi cell postings to the Tamilians instead of those who know Hindi.
“I consider this action of posting me in a Hindi Cell as an imposition of Hindi on me, who doesn’t know the language. Hindi imposition is not just compelling someone to learn Hindi, it is also forcing someone to work to propagate Hindi,” he added.
His letter comes at a time when t-shirts with anti-Hindi slogans and a general sentiment against the imposition of the language is strong in the state.
Read: TN will continue two language policy: State Education Minister writes to Centre
Source: The News Minute