Piyush Goyal’s Reply In Hindi Not English To Tamil’s Query Sees War Of Words Between Government And Opposition

Picture : Twitter / ANI

A question asked in Tamil triggered heated exchanges in the Lok Sabha between the Opposition and treasury benches that spilled over to the issue of ministers giving replies in Hindi.

It all started during Question Hour, with Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam member A Ganeshamurthi asking a supplementary question about foreign direct investment inflow in Tamil and Union minister Piyush Goyal saying that he missed the first part in Tamil and wanted to know which project was he referring to.

“If I ask a question in English, then the ministers should respond in English only… a member asks a question in Tamil and the minister replies in Hindi,” the member remarked and Goyal responded by saying that he can answer in Hindi while the translation is available for the member.

Some opposition members shouted as they also apparently sought to raise the issue of ministers replying in Hindi to questions asked in English.

In recent times, there have been instances in the House when opposition members, especially from southern states, have protested against such a trend.

Speaker Om Birla asked Ganeshamurthi to repeat the question and the member asked the same in Tamil.

A visibly peeved Goyal asked the Chair for a ruling on whether there is any rule that a question asked in a language should be replied to in the same language.

“I will give the reply in Hindi… I also listened to the translation (of the question that was asked in Tamil),” the minister said.