As the Union Cabinet on Thursday approved conferring classical language status to five languages among Marahti, NCP-SCP chief Sharad Pawar on Friday said that the Centre’s decision came “little late”.

As reported by ANI, Pawar noted, “Five languages ​​have been given the status of elite languages ​​and Marathi is one of them. This is very important for the Marathi language and other languages ​​which have got the status of elite language. Everyone made efforts to get the Marathi language the status of an elite language.”

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Pawar further said that this decision has been taken a little late but the important thing is that this decision has been taken and it will have many benefits for the promotion and development of the Marathi language. “For this, I thank the central government,” he added.

Earlier on Thursday, the government said classical languages serve as the custodians of Bharat’s profound and ancient cultural heritage, embodying the essence of each community’s historical and cultural milestone.

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“This is a historical decision and it goes very well with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the NDA government’s philosophy of taking pride in our culture, taking pride in our heritage and taking pride in all the Indian languages and the rich heritage that we have,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at a cabinet briefing.

Shiv Sena UBT leader Sanjay Raut said, “It is a great honour that Marathi has been given classical language status. 5 languages ​​have been given this honour- Bengali, Marathi, Pali, Prakrit and Assamese. For years there was a demand that the Marathi language should be given this honour.”

He added, “Leaders of almost all parties in the state and for the last 30-35 years, every Chief Minister and every state government has demanded this. If this has happened, it is the contribution of everyone, not just one person… BJP has a habit of taking credit for everything.”

Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “I am elated to learn that alongside Assamese, Bengali has been recognised as a Classical Language by the Union Cabinet yesterday. Over the years, Bengali, spoken by crores of people worldwide, has inspired many personalities and played a key role in the history of India. As a language spoken by many in Assam, it is double joy for us to have both Assamese and Bengali being recognised as Classical languages on the same day.”

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Earlier, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis stated that this had been a longstanding demand.

In a video message, Deputy CM Fadnavis said, “I express my gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the entire Union Cabinet for accepting our longstanding demand that the Marathi language should be given classical language status.”

He recalled pursuing the issue during his tenure as the state’s Chief Minister and noted how the current Eknath Shinde-led NDA government in Maharashtra had made significant efforts in this regard.

“From today, our Marathi language will be recognised as an elite language. This is a day to be written in golden letters. Prime Minister Modi Ji, thank you very much. Even when I was the Chief Minister, and now under the leadership of Chief Minister Shinde Ji, the Maharashtra Government consistently followed up on this issue, provided ample evidence, and today all that evidence has been accepted. Marathi has now achieved classical language status,” the Deputy CM added.

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On October 12, 2004, the Government of India decided to create a new category of languages as “classical languages”, declared Tamil a classical language and set criteria for according the status.

These criteria were — high antiquity of its early texts or recorded history over a thousand years, a body of ancient literature or texts which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers, and literary tradition must be original and not borrowed from another speech community.

Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia were later given the classical language status.

(With inputs from agencies)