Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar has cleared the air over Central Teacher Eligibility Test (CTET) and tweeted that CTET will be held in all 20 languages, as has been the norm earlier. The HRD Minister, in a tweet, also named all the twenty languages in the tweet that the exam can be taken by the candidates. The tweet by Javadekar comes after there was outrage expressed by candidates and leaders of Southern states following reports that CBSE was doing away with the regional languages and that students would have to choose between Hindi, English and Sanskrit.

Javadekar said in a tweet that the "#CTETexamination will be held in English, Hindi, Assamese, Bangla, Garo, Gujarati, Kanada, Khasi, Malyalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Mizo, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu,Tibetan & Urdu @cbseindia29."

Before this tweet, he said that "CTET examination will be conducted in all Indian languages as was being conducted earlier. I have already directed @cbseindia29 to conduct examination in all the 20 languages as was being done earlier."

Earlier, there were reports that The Central Board of Education (CBSE) has removed 17 languages including Tamil from the list of options for Central Teacher Eligibility Test 2018. The reports also said that the candidates will now have to choose two languages out of the three.

DMK leader Kanimozhi had even slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party, calling it "another effort to make it a Hindi-Hindu Hindustan". "The decision to drop Tamil & 16 other regional languages from Central Teacher Eligibility Test is highly condemnable and strikes at the root of federalism. Students of CBSE whose mother tongue is Tamil will be put to a great disadvantage without teachers," Kanimozhi tweeted.

"Students are forced to study Hindi & Sanskrit instead of their mother tongue. This will lead to another language struggle through out the country. This is another of BJPs efforts to make a Hindi-Hindu Hindustan," she said as she continued her attack on the BJP government.

The HRD Minister, Prakash Javadekar has put all such claims to rest with his tweet and has assured the candidates that the CTET exam will be conducted in 20 languages, just as it used to before.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 18, 2018 04:48 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).