Signing you in

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the RSS-associated student organisation, began its three-day national executive council meeting in Bhubaneswar on Friday by endorsing the CBSE’s move.

Solanki said, “The ABVP believes that the policy should be viewed not through the narrow lens of linguistic elitism, but through the larger national objective of educational empowerment, national integration, and the strengthening of Bharat’s rich linguistic heritage. This policy has the potential to create a more connected, confident, and culturally rooted generation, equipped to engage with both the diversity of India and the opportunities of the modern world.”

The CBSE’s move has come under attack from many quarters, with a PIL being filed in the Supreme Court. The SC has issued notice to the CBSE and NCERT, seeking comprehensive replies and observing that while the Board’s decision to introduce a third language may be “salutary” in principle, implementing it from the current academic year does raise certain logistical questions.

The DMK has opposed the move given Tamil Nadu’s two-language formula while the Congress has been critical of the notification being pushed without consultation. Former Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai also urged the Union Education Ministry to withdraw the notification that advanced the implementation from 2029-30 to the current academic year.

Solanki said it was “neither logical nor beneficial” to place foreign languages above Indian languages in the school education system.

“Foreign languages can continue to be offered as optional subjects … there is little justification for presenting the promotion of Indian languages as being in conflict with opportunities for learning foreign languages,” he added.

He said that proficiency in multiple Indian languages can significantly expand educational, professional, and public-service opportunities within India, “particularly at a time when inter-state mobility for higher education and employment is increasing rapidly”. He said, “It also strengthens cultural understanding and people-to-people connections across regions… The policy is, therefore, an important step towards the integration, preservation, and continuity of Bharat’s rich civilisational and cultural heritage.”

Sources in the ABVP said that those teaching foreign languages to children in school were a microscopic minority, and that national policy had to look at the larger mass of society. “In JNU, for instance, there are foreign language graduation courses. But even those students, who take admission in these, have not studied that foreign language in school. (Then) Why this insistence on giving priority to foreign languages over Indian languages in school?” an ABVP functionary, not wishing to be identified, asked.