Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI: Vice President of India M Venkaiah Naidu has laid stress on mother tongues and libraries; and their protection, promotion and propagation.
The Vice President inaugurated the 21st North East Book Fair, 2019 at Assam Engineering Institute (AEI) field here on Friday. In his inaugural speech, the Vice President laid stress on protection and propagation mother tongues. “Use your mother tongue while in your families and talking to your neighbours. I’m not against other languages, but the focus should be on mother tongues. The State government should use the mother tongue at the administrative level. There are other languages like Hindi and English. However, the thrust should be on mother tongues. Languages of peoples should be promoted and propagated.”
Beginning his speech in Assamese, the Vice President said, “Every village should have a devalaya for spiritual uplift, a sevalaya for extending services to the needy and a library for acquiring knowledge. The digital boom in the country makes us informative. However, apart from information books let us know the world and acquire knowledge. The library movement that flourished in different parts of the nation has played a critical role in the socio-cultural renaissance of India. In addition to spreading literacy and education, public libraries also played a part in safeguarding democracy, and promoting peace, culture and brotherhood. We need to read and digest books. We need more good books to enrich our lives and we should be a nation that reads. It is with great concern that I note a decline in the interest in reading, especially among the young people of our country.”
The vice president made mention of great Assamese like Srimanta Sankardeva, Lakshminath Bezbarua, Jyoti Prasad Agarwala and Dr. Bhupen Hazarika and their contribution to the mankind in his speech.
Governor Prof. Jagdish Mukhi lauded the Assam Publishers and Book Sellers Association for organizing the book fair since 1998. He said that the NE book fair has earned its reputation as a mega book fair of the region. He also said that the book fair is popularly known as ‘People Book Fair’ because of the spontaneous public support it receives from all sections of the people.
He also said that publishing books by the local entrepreneurs also help in solving unemployment problems as several local youth get absorbed in these industries.
Speaking as a guest of honour, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said that book fairs are the important elements in inculcating reading habits in young minds in a very interesting way. He said that book fairs are the agents to popularize books which delve on the culture, literature, heritage and ethnic tribes of the State. Assam’s poignant literature and art forms are all interwoven into its social fabric and permeate all barriers of caste, creed and religion, as North East Book is a testimony to this.