Cong’s Tewari rues exclusion of Punjabi as J&K official language

Jammu, September 15: Senior Congress leader and MP from Sri Anandpur Sahib in Punjab, Manish Tewari while raising the issue of Punjabi language in Parliament, today lashed out at anti-Punjabi attitude of the BJP government at the Centre, revealing that the during selection of the five official languages for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir by the Central Government, Punjabi has been ignored.
Addressing Parliament, Tewari said Sher-e-Punjab Maharaja Ranjit Singh had asserted his authority over Jammu in 1808. In 1820, he gave the Jagir of Jammu to Mian Kishore Singh Jamwal, father of Maharaja Gulab Singh. Whereas in 1822, he himself crowned Maharaja Gulab Singh as the King of Jammu at Akhnoor with his own hands. Punjabi has been written and spoken in Jammu and its surrounding areas for nearly 200 years.
Punjabi and many of its sub-dialects are also spoken in many other parts of Jammu and Kashmir. When the country was partitioned in 1947, a large number of Punjabi-speaking people settled in Jammu and Kashmir.
However the official languages of Jammu and Kashmir, which were notified on 2 September 2020 by the central government, Punjabi has been sidelined .
The offical language of the state will now be Kashmiri, Dogri, Urdu, Hindi and English. He demanded that the government should also include the Punjabi language in the proposed legislation and the Central government should not discriminate against Punjabi language in the newly constituted Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.