Urdu is the language of the country but unfortunately it was politicised and an impression was created that it was the language of the Muslims. The beauty of this language is it is neither religion and region specific language because it is spoken across the country,” said Hamid Ansari, former Vice President of India after launching the Urdu edition of The Wire news portal at the Constitution Club of India on 15 August.
On the question of the present status of Urdu and its role in near future, put forward by renowned journalist Vinod Dua, Ansari said, “If this was put to me before twenty to twenty-five years ago, I would have answered in a different manner because during those days it was on a declining trend, but now it is gaining strength which is a good sign.”
In reply to another question, he said, “It is the language of the entire country and these days we can find Urdu speaking people in Canada, the US, Australia, Africa and in many parts of the world.” When asked if Urdu can also become a means of livelihood, he said even if it is not means of livelihood, it does not mean that one should not learn it just because of that. According to him what can be described in Urdu cannot be done in any other language.
Earlier, the founding Editor of The Wire, Siddharth Varadarajan, while welcoming the guests, briefed the jam-packed gathering about the necessity of such a venture and its aim and objective. Varadarajan informed the audience that The Wire was launched in 2015 as an independent non-profit website, keeping in mind the growing culture of corporatisation of media and future role of mainstream media. The basic objective was to create an independent platform that can help bridge the shrinking democratic space and to build the trust of the people.
Social and Human rights activist, Mahtab Alam, who is now the Executive Editor of The Wire Urdu, on this occasion, said, after having seen the kind of support and the overwhelming response here, I am happy and nervous as well because the responsibility is great. With such kind of support, I do hope that I will be able to fulfil my responsibility.
Many dignitaries, including Vinod Dua, Ravish Kumar, Sayeeda Hamid, Prof Prabhat Patnayak, Actress Sharmila Tagore, Vrinda Grover, Navaid Hamid, SQR Ilyas, Farha Naqvi, Prof Apoorvanand, John Dayal, Ali Anwar Ansari, Jagdeep Chokkar, Gauhar Raza, Saeed Naqvi, Siddarth Bhatia and M K Venu, graced the occasion.