Imphal, March 02: Taking strong exception to insertion of the Meitei Mayek with 35 letters rather than the officially recognised 27 lettered mayek in the UNICODE, DESAM has urged upon the Language Cell and Science and IT Department to take up corrective measures immediately.

Speaking to reporters this evening, DESAM president H Ashirjit Luwang said that unrecognised Meetei Mayek alphabets were included in the UNICODE software at the behest of some people with vested interest.

The computer software is a package of all the known languages and alphabets of the world.

Following recognition of the 27 lettered Mayek in 1980, the alphabet is being taught to students up to class IV.

But inclusion of the other alphabets in the UNICODE has negated the very recognition made by the Government and acceptance given by the people to the genuine Mayek.

In the view of DESAM, there cannot be two different sets of alphabets for the same language.

What is vital for development of a language is adoption of an alphabet accepted and recognised by the people, remarked Ashirjit.

The compilation of the UNICODE was done by UNICODE Consortium under Prof Michel Eberson of the University of California, Berkeley.

On June 5 last year, the Information Technology Department was intimated to submit the Government recognised alphabet of Manipuri language to the IT Department of the Union Government for further forwarding to the UNICODE Consortium.

However, IT Secretary of the State Government S Budhachandra and the State Language Cell paid little attention to the intimation.

Nevertheless, the Linguistic Department of the Manipur University informed the UNICODE Consortium that recognised alphabet of the Manipuri language is the 27 lettered one, Ashirjit said.

But Prof Sobhana Chelliah of the University California, Berkeley submitted the 35 lettered one to the Consortium for inclusion in the UNICODE.

Three Manipuris��Prabhabati Chingangbam, TM Khumancha and Swarnalata were also involved in the submission of false alphabet to the Consortium, disclosed the DESAM president.

The trio published a book titled �A Grammar of Meitei� at New York and Berlin in 1997.The 35 lettered Mayek was included in the UNICODE based on the book even though the book was full of errors and distortions, he asserted.

Observing that there are many people who have been wilfully distorting facts and figures of the State in NCERT text books and media besides the Bishnupriyas of Assam and Tripura who have been claiming themselves as original Manipuris, Ashirjit noted that all these elements who are challenging the Manipuri nation should be taught fitting lessons.

He also pledged that DESAM will fight back all these challenges.

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