BJP MP and Bhojpuri star Ravi Kishan on Monday sang a song in his native language in the Lok Sabha to draw attention to his demand for including Bhojpuri in the Eight Schedule of the Constitution.
Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, the actor said Bhojpuri is spoken by over 25 crore people of the country.
It is widely spoken in Mauritius and other Caribbean countries, he said.
The BJP MP from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh recalled how people reacted with enthusiasm when Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted people in the Bhojpuri language in Bihar and Varanasi.
To drive home his point, he also started singing a line of a Bhojpuri song.
Speaker Om Birla immediately interrupted him and asked him to sing later.
More From This Section
To this, the actor said through the song he wanted to show the sweetness of the language.
The Eight Schedule of the Constitution comprises 22 languages: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Sindhi, Tamil, Telegu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithali and Dogri.
At present, there is a demand to include 38 languages in the Eight Schedule.
During oath taking, few MPs expressed the desire to take oath in Bhojpuri but were not allowed since it did not fall under the Eight Schedule.