Hindi Commissars in the Indian Government

Hindi Commissars in the Indian Government

J. Panneerselvam

The former Soviet Union under Communist rule used to have Communist Party Commissars ("Party Commissars") in every government department. These Commissars' duty was to assure that nothing against the interest of the Communist Party was done in their departments. They had extraordinary powers well above there rank in the department. Even very high-ranking officers in the military feared lower-ranking Party Commissars because a negative report from a commissar could doom their careers (during the days of Stalin, it could even cost their lives). Communist rule over the Soviet Union ended in the early 1990s and the Soviet Union also broke up to its natural constituent nations. The power of the Communist Party and its commissars ended with it.

Today, in the Indian Union, there are Hindi enforcement officers in every department of the Indian Government. Like the Communist Party Commissars of the Soviet Union, these "Hindi Commissars" in the Indian Union also have extraordinary powers within their departments. Procedures like Hindi weeks, writing a Hindi word and its English translation near the entrance of every office building everyday, organizing Hindi writing contests and Hindi public-speaking contests for non-Hindi employees, asking officers to take notes and write comments in Hindi, sending out memoranda encouraging employee conversations in Hindi (even with non-Hindi employees), etc., etc. emanate from these Hindi enforcement officers. If such procedures put forth by these officers are not implemented by the department head, pity them! Their careers in the Indian Government are doomed. They can say "goodbye" to promotions and choice assignments. Such is the power of Hindi enforcement officers, reminiscent of the Communist Party Commissars in the former Soviet Union.

The prime directive of the Indian Government seems to be the promotion of Hindi in the Indian Government and private businesses. This seems to be the number one goal of the Indian Government over and above everything else. There is no systematic unemployment alleviation program or education improvement program spanning all departments of the government, but there is a Hindi promotion (enforcement) program spanning all departments. Every effort is made, and all available resources utilized--from schools, to books, to radio to television--to see to it that every man, woman and child knows Hindi.

There is a permanent Parliamentary Committee, comprising of both ruling party and opposition members, devising means of expanding the use of Hindi in the country (that is, imposing Hindi on non-Hindi peoples). But there is no such permanent Parliamentary Committee for the alleviation of poverty or health care or improvement of the educational system.

All in all, top priority of the Indian Government is to expand the use of Hindi in all spheres of life, be it government, private business, education or entertainment. Everything else comes after that. Is this India or Hindia?



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