Telugu debate in Tamil Nadu Assembly flummoxes members

The usual ‘Maanbumigu’ (honourable) and ‘methagu’ (excellency) were given a go by, and maatladu (Telugu word for speak) briefly became the lingua franca of the Assembly post-noon Monday, courtesy DMK legislator Y Prakash from Thali, bordering Karnataka.

After attempting to draw the attention of the House to the plight of linguistic minorities taking school tests in Tamil, a perturbed Prakash switched to his mother tongue Telugu, indeed, with the permission of Speaker P Dhanapal. A sarcastic Dhanapal, who reminded Prakash that a majority of the legislators do not know Telugu, even blamed the MLA’s speech-writers for penning a difficult Tamil text. However, it did not deter Prakash, who retorted saying, “The minister from my district knows Telugu,” referring to Sports and Youth Welfare Minister Balakrishna Reddy from Hosur, another Telugu-speaking member.

All but the MLA and minister were lost in translation, and that too when Prakash was seeking Reddy’s intervention to help linguistic minorities compelled to take tests in Tamil. Even the wee bit of Tamil and overdose of Telugu from Prakash prompted a reaction from School Education Minister Sengottaiyan who clarified that non-Tamil speaking people of Tamil Nadu have been given a two-year exemption. Obliging the Opposition MLA, Balakrishna Reddy added in Telugu: “The rule making Tamil compulsory for non-Tamil speakers was passed in DMK regime. AIADMK only implements it.”

As a few clueless members were taking help of polyglots in the House to understand the debate, DMK MLA Thangam Thennarasu joined the repartee by opening his speech with a few words in Telugu before clarifying that the DMK did not pass the order to affect linguistic minorities. Finally, the chair advised Prakash and Reddy to give their translated statements in writing or allow it to be entered in the records as Telugu statements.

This was not the first instance when debate in Telugu caught members unawares. In the previous Assembly, former CM J Jayalalithaa had not only allowed a rival Congress MLA to speak in Telugu, but replied in Tamil. Only Jayalalithaa had translated the exchanges to the monoglot Tamil MLAs.