(From left) Chief minister Nitish Kumar, Kalim Ajiz Ahmad and Pavan Kumar Varma at the event in Patna on Saturday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Jan. 4: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today laid emphasis on promotion of Urdu, the official second language of the state.

Inaugurating Jashn-e-Urdu, a two-day programme organised by the cabinet secretariat, Nitish appealed to the participants for devising ways to connect the language with employment opportunities. It is the first such programme organised in the city under the aegis of the Urdu directorate in the cabinet secretariat department.

“We have formulated a policy for the development of the Urdu language according to which teachers would be appointed in all schools of the state. The idea is to motivate the people to learn Urdu. We have not yet found adequate number of Urdu teachers for the schools. I would appeal to the participants to come up with a solution for connecting Urdu with employment,” said the chief minister at Premchand Rangshala.

Stating that Urdu is rooted in the state’s culture, he said: “We use plenty of Urdu words in our daily life. We don’t do it deliberately but Hindi and Urdu are assimilated in our soil. Hindi and Urdu languages are the symbol of our old Ganga-Yamuni tradition that shows unity in diversity. The two languages — which are sisters — unite society.”

He advocated for Hindi and Urdu to be developed as an alternative to English in the country.

“China, France, Germany and Japan have progressed rapidly without the support of the English language. These countries have achieved phenomenal growth with the assistance of their own languages. We can also learn law, science and other subjects in our own language. People should learn English without any compulsion,” he added.

He also said Patna would host a literature festival focusing on Indian languages unlike other such events where English rules the roost.

Nitish also released Gair Muslim Urdu shora ka kul Hind mushaira, Quami seminar-Urdu juban and quarterly magazine Bhasha Sangam prepared by the rajbhasha directorate. Cultural programmes have also been organised for the two-day Jashn-e-Urdu.

Today, Radhika Chopra, a ghazal singer from Delhi, performed. Actor Tom Alter will present his solo play, Maulana Azad, tomorrow.

Among the other dignitaries present were Pavan Kumar Varma, the cultural adviser to the chief minister, Bihar Urdu Advisory Board chairman Kalim Ajiz Ahmad, consultant director of Jashn-e-Urdu Rakhshanda Jalil, Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library director Imtiaz Ahmad, the chief minister’s principal secretary Anjani Kumar Singh and minority welfare department’s principal secretary Amir Subhani. Cabinet secretariat department’s principal secretary Brajesh Mehrotra gave a vote of thanks.