SURVIVAL OF URDU SEEMS TOUGH IN RAMPUR

After Delhi and Lucknow, Rampur is said to be the third school of Urdu, however, with the diminishing enthusiasm of Urdu experts in the region, it seems that Urdu is breathing its last. Though Rampur comes under those 14 districts in UP where Urdu is the second official language and even the election commission has given directives that voter list and ballot paper should be printed in Urdu along with Hindi, yet Urdu ballot paper and voter list remained out of sight. This is the second time when the ballot paper and voter list had no trace of Urdu. The February elections which were under Mayawati rule sidelined Urdu, however the recent local elections under the present SP government, which for the matter of fact claims itself to be the friend of Muslims and promoter of Urdu, also adopted the same course of action. If we go by the statistics then among 4 lakh, 27 thousand voters, around 3 lakh are Muslims. It seems that it is a deliberate attempt to wipe out Urdu from the place where it once stood firm.