Mother tongue underlying component of one’s identity: Farooq Abdullah

National Conference president and MP Farooq Abdullah on Sunday said that mother tongue is an underlying component of one’s culture and identity, and every effort should be made to protect the linguistic diversity of Jammu and Kashmir.

In his message on International Mother Tongue Day, Abdullah said the mother tongue must be the medium of instruction in schools, especially at formative stages. “It lays a strong foundation for the expression of creativity and personality development. It also fosters creativity at the formative stages. As far as the Kashmiri language is concerned, it is richly endowed with classical as well as folk literature watered over thousands of years by various poets, sages, rhetoricians, and linguists,” he said.

Calling for a comprehensive strategy to help keep Kashmiri, Dogri, Punjabi, and other languages in Jammu and Kashmir alive, the NC MP from Srinagar called for prioritising it in the education sector, especially during formative years of learning. In addition, he emphasised having special grants for scholars pursuing research programmes in vernacular languages. Abdullah urged parents to use their mother tongue as a medium of communication at home. “Communicating in one’s mother tongue should be a matter of pride for all of us in Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.

Asserting that the National Conference has all along been striving for gender equality, Farooq Abdullah also laid emphasis on the political empowerment of women and their larger role in policy planning and decision-making.

“Involvement of women in decision-making and policy planning is necessary for achieving comprehensive, unbiased, and sustainable development, which will eventually lead to harmonious growth of the society,” Abdullah said.

Interacting with the newly constituted provincial women wing of the party at a function here, Abdullah referred to measures taken by his party over the years for women empowerment and emancipation and said this is necessary for promoting leadership roles among them.