Finally VP Jha has issued a somewhat apology/clarification.  Lets hope that the protests  will abate now, at least for communal harmony. I believe that the protests for that matter owed much more to the Pahadi pride than to anything else (like constitutional requirement etc). But I think its the Madhesi population that should be worried because of the increasing use of Hindi.

Firstly there will be some regulation in the constitution about official languages etc and everybody will abide by that. So we wont have to speak hindi.

Secondly, the madhesi population is going to get an autonomous state  and these leaders are sure to use Hindi as their formal language and they will have the right to use whatever they decide. This means a complete wiping of Maithali, Bhojpuri etc.

Talking about wiping of these regional languages, let me put forward some statistics. In India there are about 130/140 native Bhojpuri speakers, which is not yet a national language. Similarly there are about 45 million native Maithali speakers and maithali was made a national language in 2004 ie after Nepali was made a national language and the number of Nepali speakers in India is far less than these languages. India considers Maithali and Bhojpuri dialects of Hindi which is a clear indication that India is trying to wipe these languages out.

And our Madhesi leaders are surely following Indian actions (who knows orders too) and 20 years down the line there will be not bhojpuri or maithali in Madhesh, only Hindi. If that is good for them let it be.

I am curious if the Nepali constitution specifies anything in relation to languages (national language, official language etc). Can anyone enlighten me, pease?

Mucho thanks...

The oath taken by parmananda jha in hindi langauge is absolutely incorrect either it is constitutional or not. Even the decision of supreme court doesn't answer correctly on this issue. Because the decision of supreme court solely depends only on the writtten constitution. The sentiments of whole nepali people should be the major one.  Nothing and nobody can justify the oath of vice president. The only one option is he should apologize and retake the oath in nepali language for the sake of all nepali.

In the last constitution all languages spoken in Nepal were recognized as national languages, if my memory serves me right. Nepali was the official language to be used in courts and government offices.

Jha was making a political statement by taking the oath of office in Hindi. As someone who worked in government in the past, he was well versed with Nepali but he chose to take it in Hindi to make assert Madesi rights and make a statement to his party's constituents. Whether that was a good move or not is for history to judge but I think he started on the wrong foot with that move and created a Pahade backlash of sorts.

Going forward there will have to be some sort of consensus on what language will be used in government. Taking an oath has more symbolic meaning than lets say registering your land in Hindi or filing an application in Hindi at the police station. I personally feel it is unlikely that Hindi, English  or any other language can replace Nepali as the official language in which the central government conducts it's business since the logistical cost of doing that will be enormous. That said, I can see a scenario where provincial governments could use other languages. What I dont undertsand is why would anyone want to fill a form in Hindi, Bhojpuri, Maithili or even Newari , Rai etc since most people who are literate are so in either Nepali or in some cases English. As it is government work in Nepal is unnecessarily complicated, why add more chaos and confusion by adding more languages to deal with ?