The Central government on Thursday informed the Rajya Sabha that an interministerial consideration is underway to select Marathi as classical language and a "positive decision" will come soon.
Minister of State for Culture, Arjun Ram Meghwal made the announcement while replying to a question by Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi in Rajya Sabha today.
Chaturvedi raised the issue during Question Hour, asking "why Marathi is not yet considered as classical language despite the matter put before the government by several MPs and the state as well, and the government always replies that consideration is on".
Replying to the question, Meghwal said, "A decision on declaring Marathi as a classical language will be taken soon, inter-ministerial dialogue is on. A positive decision in this matter will be taken soon. The government has so far given the status of classical language to six languages."
The Central government has so far given the status of classical language to Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia.
The government of Maharashtra earlier has submitted an application to the Ministry of Culture to grant classical language status to Marathi.
The criteria adopted by the government to determine the eligibility of a language for classical status includes its recorded history over a period of 1,500-2,000 years, the body of ancient literature, whether its literary tradition is original and not borrowed from another speech community and other yardsticks.
( With inputs from ANI )
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