While the wider ambition of the Indian government’s Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act (2009) has been praised, scholars have uttered reservations with the universal education measure. The majority of children learn in a tongue that is not their home language, meeting with grave educational drawbacks. How this matter complicates the RTE (2009) Act's intent stays unexamined. This paper explores this gap using the theoretical lens of dis-citizenship, which is conceptualized in terms of exclusions met with by marginalized groups via the medium of instruction.