Take pride in your mother tongue and conserve it: Venkaiah Naidu

HYDERABAD: Taking pride in Telugu as his mother tongue, former vice-president M. Venkaiah Naidu said it was time to preserve the rich language and culture, as they both played an important role in binding generations and creating unity.

Naidu was speaking at the Telugu Sangamam Sankranti Sammelan organised to celebrate Sankranti at Narsingi here on Sunday. Haryana Governor Bandaru Dattatreya and senior BJP leader P. Muralidhar Rao, who organised the sammelan, were present on the occasion.

Naidu said, “As one who believes in the unique power of mother tongue and language, I feel that there is an urgent need to preserve the mother tongue. Towards this, education ought to be in the mother tongue, which should also be preferred as the administrative language and in court proceedings.”

He said that no matter how many languages one learnt, the individual must never neglect one’s mother tongue as this keeps alive the sense of one’s identity and the culture one belonged to.

Citing the examples of scholars like Aryabhatta and Bhaskaracharya, Naidu underlined the richness of the Indian culture and tradition and vedas which had taught civilization to the world. It was therefore important to conserve the languages and culture, which held the key to unity and pass it on to the next generations.

Naidu further emphasized on the need to revive traditional songs, games, music and dance and various art forms as well as dialects, which carried the essence of one’s identity in a diverse and culturally rich country like India.

Film director Raghavendra Rao and classical singer Shobha Raju, an exponent of Sankirtana, were felicitated on the occasion.

Handloom textiles from Pochampally and Narayanpet and traditional jewellery, among others, were on display.

The programme included Kuchipudi renditions and literary talks.