The face-off between the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government regarding a number of issues, including NEET and IAS cadre rules, manifested in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday when Union minister Piyush Goyal refused to reply in English to a question posed by a DMK MP.
Despite protests by MPs from Tamil Nadu, Goyal urged Speaker Om Birla to give a ruling in the House that ministers can choose to reply in either Hindi or English and that there is no “rule that questions in English should be replied to in English only”. Since the beginning of the Budget Session, the Lok Sabha has witnessed a number of such instances where the Treasury benches and Opposition members argued over the language used during question hour. While ministers like Ashwini Vaishnaw have obliged requests of MPs from non-Hindi speaking states to reply in English, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had insisted last week that he would reply only in Hindi.