Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: The Bill introduced by the Madhesh Province Government regarding working languages in government offices has brewed controversy. The Bill became contentious because mother tongues were not included in the list of working languages.
Minister for Education Rani Sharma Tiwari presented the Bill to regulate the languages of government work in the Madhesh Province Assembly on Wednesday. The Bill proposes designating Nepali, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Bajjika, Hindi and English as the province’s working languages.
Province assembly members of both opposition and ruling parties obstructed the session on Thursday. They demanded that the Bill be withdrawn because it does not include the mother tongues spoken in the province.
As soon as the session began on Thursday, CPN-UML province assembly member Rajendra Prasad Chaudhary raised objections, stating that imported languages were given space in the Bill for government work. “Who are we trying to please by presenting imported languages like Hindi and English as the working languages of the province? The minister must answer this. We will not allow the province assembly to function until the bill is withdrawn,” Chaudhary said.
Province assembly members of the Janamat Party, which is leading the government, as well as ruling coalition partner Nepali Congress (NC) have also opposed the Bill. Janamat Party whip Chandan Singh said the language-related Bill is flawed and should be withdrawn. Similarly, Ram Saroj Yadav of NC said the government brought the Bill in an arbitrary manner “The Bill brought without consulting political parties and stakeholders should be withdrawn immediately,” he added.
Jayanul Rain of Loktantrik Samajbadi Party (LSP) demanded that Urdu be proposed as one of the working languages in the province.
While lawmakers were protesting the bill inside the province assembly hall, youths outside the provincial assembly building burned effigies of Chief Minister Satish Kumar Singh and Education Minister Sharma. They demanded that the Magahi language be included in the list of working languages.
According to the 2021 census, 62 languages are spoken in Madhesh Province. Mathali (41.37%) is the most widely spoken language in the province, followed by Bhojpuri (18.81%), Bajjika (18.44%), Nepali (5.76%), Tharu (4.17%), Urdu (4.08%), Magahi (3.52%) and Tamang (1.65%).
The Hindi language, which the government has proposed as a working language, ranks 10th among mother tongues in the province. Similarly, the number of English mother tongue speakers is zero percent.
