Linguistic Detour: A local language test for taxi and auto drivers is not going to make the roads safer

Maharashtra is going to ask taxi and auto drivers to take exams to prove they can speak and write Marathi. If they want to ply, this will be a prereq­uisite from May 1, according to media reports. Language is a touchy issue in the state whose genesis was out of it. It has since turned into a low-hanging fruit for politicians to pick on because bread-and-butter issues involve effort. To make administration efficient or to build infrastructure takes years. Even well-intentioned policies, as when some years back they tried to do away with brokers in the road traffic offices, fail because without them the system itself comes close to collapse. A measure that taps into regional pride, where language figures at the top, becomes some­thing tangible in the resume of a minister.

In cities like Mumbai the majority of drivers are over­whelmingly non-Maha­rashtrians, and this has been true for decades. The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena tried to make the prevalence of North Indian drivers a political issue many years ago and didn’t get much traction. There are things that Indians will do and things that they won’t. Poor unedu­cated drivers from other states are just not going to suddenly turn literate to take exams. They will find ways around it. A passing certificate offered for a fee will be one more service on the list of middlemen. Obviously, those who come up with such an idea know how it will get corrupted.

All that doesn’t matter because the intent is not the execu­tion of the policy but the announcement. The rule will continue to exist on paper among the many impractical checklists that the government forces on Indians. Such a measure won’t be just limited to Maharashtra either. Politicians elsewhere, once they realise how easy it is to get headlines from such announcements, will be eager to do likewise. Like the epidemic of the changing of names of places across India. In a country where you can pay to not give a driving test and still get a licence, something that has a direct correlation to safety, what are the odds of a language test being seriously implemented?