P Chidambaram distances himself from panel recommendations on official language

CHENNAI: Distancing himself from the recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language, former Union minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday said he could not veto or overrule the views of the overwhelming majority of the panel. He said the home minister is the ex-officio chairman of the committee and the deputy chairman is Satyavrat Chaturvedi. “Of the 30 members of the committee, 28 belonged to Hindi speaking or Hindi knowing states. As can be expected, all of them were advocates of Hindi”.Members were distributed among three sub-committees, he said and added that the evidence and drafting sub-committee was chaired by Chaturvedi.

The report was prepared by the sub-committee and adopted, after discussion, by the committee and added that proceedings of the committee and sub-committee are conducted in Hindi.“If the overwhelming majority of the committee adopted a report, there is little that the ex-officio chairman can do. The chairman does not have a veto and he cannot overrule the views of the overwhelming majority”, Chidambaram added.