RS nod for Central tag to 3 Sanskrit varsities

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 16

The Rajya Sabha today passed a Bill to upgrade three deemed Sanskrit universities into Central ones by a voice vote after HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ moved a couple of minor official amendments.

The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha in December last year and was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on March 2 by the HRD Minister. Since the Rajya Sabha has passed the Bill with amendments, it will go back to the Lok Sabha again.

The Bill seeks to upgrade three deemed-to-be universities in Sanskrit — Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, Sri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth and Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth Tirupati — into Central universities.

As the Bill received support from the cross sections of parties in the House, the minister said the Modi government was committed to strengthen all Indian languages.

Speaking about the spread of Sanskrit, Pokhriyal said around five crore students had been studying the language in the country itself. “We are committed to the growth of all languages that are spoken in the country,” the minister asserted, while responding to queries around eight Indian classical languages.

Since the Bill received widespread support from members, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy of the AITC and Prashant Nanda of the BJD spoke in Sanskrit. DMK members opposed the Bill.