New Delhi, March 16 (IANS): The Rajya Sabha on Monday passed the Central Sanskrit Universities Bill by voice vote, paving the way for converting three deemed varsities into central Sanskrit universities.

The Lok Sabha had passed the bill on December 11, 2019.

The three deemed varsities to be converted into central Sanskrit universities are Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi; Lal Bahadur Shastri Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, New Delhi; and Rashtriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth, Tirupati.

The Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on March 2 by Minister of Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank'. But it could not be taken up due to House disruptions over Delhi communal riots.

During debate, K.K. Ragesh (CPI-M) said Sanskrit was known only to a few, then why the government was doing so much for it and not other languages. He said Kendriya Vidyalaya in Kerala didn't teach Malayalam.

Opposing the Bill, M. Shanmugam (DMK) said the Centre had spent Rs 643 crore on Sanskrit, but only Rs 22 crore on Tamil. Binoy Viswam (CPI) also opposed the Bill and said Sanskrit was never the language of the people.

P.L. Punia (Congress) said existing central universities faced several issues over reservation and teaching staff.

Another Congress leader said Sanskrit was a beautiful, scientific language with glorious legacy, along with history of caste oppression. It should be treasure of many, not monopoly of few. Not only Sanskrit, but all six classical languages must be promoted equally, he added.

Supporting the Bill, Subramanian Swamy (BJP) said those who said Sanskrit was a dead language were themselves intellectually dead. He also cited a paper by NASA to say Sanskrit was the best language for artificial intelligence.

Attacking Opposition, Swamy said Congress leaders should learn Sanskrit shlokas to improve their brains. Around 40 per cent of words in Tamil and Sanskrit were common, he added.

Supporting the Bill, A Navaneethakrishnan (AIADMK) asked the HRD Minister to visit the Tamil university in Thanjavur, Keezhadi and Adichanallur.