Rajya Sabha Passes Central Sanskrit University Bill 2019

Initiating the discussion, Jairam Ramesh of Congress said, Sanskrit has always been a privilege of few as only fifteen thousand people speak it across the country. He demanded that the government should allocate more funds for promoting other classical languages which are spoken widely across the country. Mr. Ramesh demanded that these institutions must be named after noted Sanskrit scholars like Panini and Amarsimha.

Sukhendu Shekar Roy of Trinamool Congress said, many languages find its genesis from Sanskrit. He said this has become an endangered language as a negligible number of people only use this language. Ram Gopal Yadav of Samajwadi Party suggested renaming the student council as the student union.

Three Sanskrit Universities

The bill will enable to upgrade of three universities as Central Sanskrit Universities. These three universities are - Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth Tirupati, Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, and Sri Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth.

Background

Lok Sabha passed the bill in December 2019 while it was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on March 02, 2020. It was introduced in Rajya Sabha by HRD Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank'. Now, it will go back to the Lok Sabha for the final stage.

Importance

The government is in favor of strengthening Sanskrit as well as Tamil, Telugu, Bangla, Malayalam, Gujarati, Kannada, etc. HRD Minister, Ramesh Pokhriyal said that Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, Sri Lal Bahadur Shastri Vidyapeeth, and Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth Tirupati are the three important institutes that have been given the status of Central University. The Central Sanskrit University Bill 2019 was passed by voice vote in the Lok Sabha.