All courses should be taught in Indian languages: Vice Prez

Vice President Venkaiah Naidu today said that all courses, even medicine and engineering, should be taught in Indian languages.

"As the Vice President of India and being a citizen, I feel that all the courses, medicine, engineering...should be taught in Hindi and all (other) Indian languages in coming days," Naidu said in his convocation speech at the Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism and Communication here.

Will and change of mindset were needed to effect this change, he said.

"It is easy to speak out your heart in one's own language. I am not averse to learning English, English should be learnt. But before that, our mother tongue - be it Hindi, Telugu, Punjabi or Marathi, should be learnt," he said.

If mother tongue is eyes, languages are pairs of spectacles. Spectacles are worn over eyes, but in the absence of eyes, there is no sight, Naidu said.

To establish their language here, the Britishers made its study a must for getting jobs, he said.

If teaching and learning in Indian languages is not promoted, future generations won't be able to speak their mother tongues, the vice president said.

Naidu also touched upon disruptions in legislatures.

"The House is for debate and discussion. If it does not run, democracy would weaken....To speak against (government) is the right in democracy, but to stall the House is wrong," he said.

In selecting leaders, four 'C's should be considered -- character, calibre, capacity and conduct, he said.

However, in today's politics, another four 'C's -- caste, community, cash and criminality -- are encouraged, he lamented.