Jaswant Singh Gandam/Raman Nehra
India Post News Service
PHAGWARA: About 500 residents, students, Punjabi writers, journalists, industrialists and religious leaders held a ‘Punjabi Maa Boli Chetna March’ here in observance of February 21st International Mother Tongue Day.
Punjabi Kala and Sahit Kendar, Sangeet Darpan, Punjabi Virsa Trust and Sahara Club Phagwara organized it for promotion, propagation and preserving of Punjabi language.
The participants demanded teaching of Punjabi in all schools from the first standard and that of English from sixth standard.
The march was flagged off jointly by Los Angeles-based NRI Sikh bard/hymn singer/preacher Sant Anoop Singh Una Sahibwale, Phagwara Superintendent of Police (SP) Mandeep Singh Gill, Municipal Corporation Commissioner Bakhtawar Singh, former Punjab minister Joginder Singh Mann and industrial magnate cum NGO stalwart Kuldip Sardana.
Eminent Punjabi writers Gurmit Palahi, Bakhtawar Mian, SL Virdi, Baldev Komal, Ravinder Chot, Prof Jaswant Singh Gandam, Sital Ram, journalists Haripal Singh, Taranjit Singh Kinra, Jaswinder Singh, Kulwant Singh, NRI Sukhjinder Singh Bhaur, Gurdwara President Mohan Singh Sayin, Congress leader Gurjit Singh Walia, Shiv Sena stalwart Rajesh Palta, social activists Prof Ashok Chadha, Dr Kheti Bawa, Amit Shukla, and Ajit Singh Walia took part in it.
Addressing participants, speakers, including Prof Jaswant Singh Gandam, Bakhtawar Singh, Gurmit Palahi, SL Virdi said that Punjabi language was part of our cultural ethos.
They said it was wrong to link it to any religion.
“Punjabi is mother tongue of all Punjabis, be they Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Dalits. Likewise, it is mother tongue of Punjabi Diaspora spread across the globe. It is a common thread that binds and bonds all Punjabis. About 13 crore people speak it in the world,” they said.
