ICAI President’s Call To Adopt Hindi Upsets Tamil Nadu CAs

ICAI President Nihar N Jambusaria has stirred a hornet’s nest. In a signed message published in the October issue of The Chartered Accountant journal, he exhorted the members of India’s apex body for chartered accountants to adopt Hindi in their work and interactions with other stakeholders. For him, Hindi is a rajbhasha (official language). And, he wants his fellow CAs to promote Hindi. His appeal has virtually kicked up a row with many senior CAs, especially in the state of Tamil Nadu, warning the ICAI chief of the adverse fall-out of his action. Should ICAI be promoting a language? Or, should it be guiding the CA fraternity as a whole? The debate has already picked up steam on social media. Predictably, his move has drawn political reaction as well. A sitting MP from Madurai, S Venkatesan, has taken to Twitter to condemn the ICAI chief. “May be it (Hindi) is your mother tongue but not for all,” he tweeted. He has already dashed off a letter to ICAI, opposing the move. “Tamil Nadu would resist imposition (of Hindi),” Venkatesan asserted. The CA fraternity in Tamil Nadu is seething in anger. ICAI could live without such controversy. And, Jambusaria could have avoided playing to galleries (on September 14 being marked as Hindi Diwas). He reportedly clarified: “It (Hindi) is a choice… If you want to write in whatever language you want, there is no restriction on anybody.”