July 25, 2014
Derek O’Brien speaks on the UPSC issue | Transcript
Sir, on the Minister`s statement, I have three quick points to make. This country is so great that even though English is my mother tongue, I first learnt to speak in Bengali by choice. Now, I have three quick points.
First to the Minister, through you, Sir, please stop this television beatification of Parliament. If statements on serious issues have to be made, we urge the Minister to make those statements on the floor of Parliament. But the Minister has done this before on some other issue concerning three numbers — I will not get into that — but those statements should be made on the floor of Parliament, not to television studios. He can make it later.
Secondly, my own leader, Mamata Banerjee, has shown the way where when it comes to Railway exams, people were given the opportunity to write those exams in a language they are comfortable in. Sir, this is not an issue of English versus Hindi, certainly not. This is an issue regarding all the languages.
In the campaign of the BJP before the election, we heard a lot about connecting with the youth of India. If you really want to connect with the youth of India, reconnect and do it now, maintain status quo because young people around the country are watching you, are watching us. We need to act on their behalf ; we need to act now.
