English signboard for library infuriates Nitish

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday voiced his extreme displeasure over the signboard of a government school’s library bearing the inscription in English.

Kumar was in Banka district, about 250 kms from the state capital, where he reached after inspection of a bridge in the adjoining Jamui which got damaged after heavy rainfall last week.

In Banka, Kumar inaugurated a newly constructed hospital and inspected a recently renovated indoor stadium before visiting a high school and got upset upon seeing the signboard stating it was a “digital library”.

“Why is this not in Hindi? We are not living in the British era,” he told the District Magistrate Anshul Kumar who was present there.

“Look, I have nothing against English. It was the medium of my instruction while I was studying engineering. Many of my speeches in Parliament, too, were in that language”, said the longest-serving CM of Bihar.

He added, “But, at one point of time, I decided to promote the use of Hindi. I therefore gave up putting on my signature in English. Please get this signboard changed, at the earliest”.

The DM assured Kumar that the needful would be done “today itself”.

The septuagenarian, who owes his passionate advocacy for Hindi to his ideological devotion towards late socialist stalwart Ram Manohar Lohia, has voiced displeasure, in public, over the use of English on more than one occasion.

In February, he reprimanded an agricultural entrepreneur for making a presentation that contained “too many English words”.

A month later, inside the state legislative council, he chided Chairman Devesh Chandra Thakur, who belongs to his JD(U), upon seeing words like “honourable” and “speaking time” on the electronic display board.

The chief minister was accompanied by cabinet colleagues and top government officials during his tour of the two districts.