Rajamahendravaram: Formervice-president Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu said everyone should make it a habit to speak in their mother tongue. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi studied in Gujarati, President Droupadi Murmu in Odia, former Chief Justice of India NV Ramana in Telugu, and he himself studied in his mother tongue before rising to the position of Vice-President. Most people holding top positions in the country were educated in their native languages, he said.

He was speaking on Monday at the inauguration of a two-day national workshop on the theme ‘Uniform Scientific and Technical Terminology in Indian Languages’ at the NTR Convention Centre of Adikavi Nannaya University (AKNU). The programme is being organised jointly by the AKNU and the Bharatiya Bhasha Samiti, New Delhi. Vice-Chancellor Prof S Prasanna Sree and other officials grandly welcomed him. Venkaiah Naidu lit the lamp and formally opened the workshop.

He said people should first learn their mother tongue, then other Indian languages such as Hindi, Tamil, and Malayalam, and only after that learn foreign languages. The sweetness in the word ‘Amma’ does not exist in the word Mummy, he said. He recalled that during British rule, English was imposed with the promise of jobs only to those who spoke it, leaving people with no choice but to learn it.

He said the country studied distorted history that glorified figures like Robert Clive and Alexander. To correct such errors, the Centre formed a committee under K Kasturirangan and introduced a new education policy. He said learning in the mother tongue should be made compulsory for jobs. Court arguments and judgments should be in Telugu, and administration should also run in Telugu, he added.

He said Telugu has many dialects from Srikakulam to Chittoor. He appreciated Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan’s announcement to reprint the Surya Rayandhra Dictionary. He urged everyone to avoid English words in daily conversations and to create new words in Telugu.

Vice-chancellor Prof Prasanna Sree described language as a continuous stream that grows and changes with society. She said languages reflect the culture, traditions, and values of each era. Society changes faster than language, which makes changes in vocabulary, pronunciation, sentence structure, and communication styles inevitable. While some changes happen naturally, others require planned effort. She said systematic creation of terminology is essential to make languages suitable for scientific and technical use, and hoped the workshop would contribute to that goal.

Three books were released on the occasion. Venkaiah Naidu launched the Handbook of Drug Addiction and the Role of Enforcement, written by psychologist and retired DSP Dr Namagiri Babji; Sikharaagrimalli, written by Dr Malles Bhaskar of the Social Work Department, and Dharaniputrulu, written by nursery farmer Pulla China Satyanarayana. VC Prasanna Sree honoured Venkaiah Naidu with a memento.

Telugu and Sanskrit Academy chairman RD Wilson, former TANA president Dr Totakura Prasad, and Bharatiya Bhasha Samiti academics coordinator Dr K Giridhar Rao were present. Dr KVND Varaprasad delivered the welcome address, and workshop coordinator Dr Talari Vasu explained the purpose of the event.