Ram Naik

There is a time and place for everything. Granted that there is a case for advocating Hindi and other regional languages as replacements for English in school, but do you really need to do it at a seminar titled, ‘Theory and Teaching of English’? That is precisely what Uttar Pradesh Governor Ram Naik did when called as a guest for a seminar at Allahabad University.

According to a Times of India report, ‘Naik emphasised that education till the secondary level should be imparted only in Hindi or other mother languages, a statement that brought discomfort to many in the faculty of English and European Languages, the event’s organizer.’ Naik is believed to have claimed that English cannot serve as a substitute for vernacular languages. Naik’s approach to teaching English is not to teach it at all, and that seems slightly ludicrous in a globalised world where the currency of communication is English.

Naik, an old timer, might not realise it, but at the ground level all parents and children want to study English because it is a reliable ticket for upward mobility. And then there is the matter of elementary courtesy. If he didn’t agree with the topic of the seminar, he could have refused to attend it instead of ambushing the event.

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