Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram has vehemently criticized the Union government's escalating practice of embedding Hindi words, transliterated into the English alphabet, directly into the official titles of Bills tabled in Parliament, terming it a direct and unnecessary affront to the millions of citizens residing in non-Hindi-speaking states and regions across the country.

In his post on X dated December 15, 2025, the seasoned politician elaborated on the practical difficulties imposed by this approach, explaining that non-Hindi speakers often struggle to quickly identify the subject matter of the legislation, fully understand its implications, or even accurately pronounce the titles, thereby creating an unintended barrier to public engagement with parliamentary processes.

Throughout the nearly 75 years of India's parliamentary history post-Independence, a well-established and bipartisan convention has prevailed, wherein the English version of Bills exclusively used English titles and the Hindi version employed corresponding Hindi terms, ensuring seamless accessibility and comprehension for all linguists without generating any friction or demands for change.

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Chidambaram posed a pointed rhetorical question regarding the motivations behind disrupting this time-tested and inclusive practice that had served the nation effectively, suggesting that the abrupt shift appears to prioritize one language over others, thereby eroding the foundational respect for India's profound linguistic diversity and marginalizing states with distinct official languages.

Moreover, the Congress Member of Parliament voiced deep apprehension that this linguistic trend poses a serious threat to the longstanding constitutional and political commitment to preserve English as an Associate Official Language, a promise consistently upheld and reiterated by governments across party lines over decades, now seemingly jeopardized by these subtle yet persistent alterations in legislative nomenclature.

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