The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has decided to take up the issue of restoration of Punjabi as an official language in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah besides taking up the issue in Parliament also.
A decision to this effect was taken at a party high- level meeting which was presided over by SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal. It was decided that the party would seek a change in the draft leg- islation seeking to make Urdu Kashmiri, Dogri, Hindi and English official languages of J&K by seek-
ing inclusion of Punjabi language in this list.
The SAD President said that there was widespread resentment amongst Sikhs and Punjabis living in Jammu and Kashmir as well as Punjabis worldwide at the discriminatory manner in which Punjabi had been excluded as an official language of J&K by its administration.
He said that Punjabi had been given the status of an official language in the erstwhile constitution of the J&K state and said this status should be retained in the present dispensation also.
Sukhbir Singh Badal assured the party leaders that he would take up this issue forcefully with the centre as well as raise the issue in parliament to ensure the due status of Punjabi language was restored.
He said, “Punjabi was embedded in the culture of J&K from the time of the Khalsa Raj and was widely used as a medium of instruction. Badal said that SAD had always been at the forefront in the fight for justice for the mother tongue of crores of Punjabis and would continue to ensure no discrimination was meted out to Punjabi language.”
Badal said that he had conveyed the sentiments of Punjabis worldwide to the J&K administration and had also pointed out that such decisions would only provide ammunition to those who were work- ing to disturb the peace and communal harmony in the country. He further adds that the move to remove Punjabi as an official language was against the spirit of the constitution whose founding fathers were inspired by the vision of India as a multi-religious, multicultural and multi- lingual nation.
