MP’s Odia reply to letter by minister sparks Hindi row

NEWDELHI: An exchange of letters between a Bhartiya Janat a Party minister and a Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP re-ignited the “Hindi imposition” debate on Saturday.

On Friday, B JD MP Ta th agata Satpathy tweeted Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar’s letter in Hindi, and said: “Why are Union Ministers forcing Hindi on non Hindi speaking Indians? Is this an attack on other languages?” Tomar had on August 11 sent the letter, inviting Satpathy to attend a district-level event on the ‘India 2022’ vision.

The BJD MP, however, didn’t stop at that and decided to give the minister a dose of his own medicine. So, he sent a letter to Tomar — in Odia — and tweeted a copy, saying, “Replied in Oriya to Hon’ble Union Minister Sri Narendra S Tomar expressing inability to comprehend his Hindi letter.”

Later Satpathy told HT, “I respect all languages. But they should remember that Odia, Bangla and other languages are also beautiful.” The ruling BJP has been accused of trying to impose Hindi across the country although the Constitution decrees official status to 22 languages.

The Modi government had refuted the allegation, saying there was no drive to impose Hindi on anyone, replying to Tamil Nadu leader MK Stalin’s accusation that it violated the Constitutional rights of non-Hindi speaking citizens.

India has seen several antiHindi protests when the Centre tried to make the use of Hindi mandatory.

Why are Union Ministers forcing Hindi on non Hindi speaking Indians? Is this an attack on other languages?

TATHAGATA SATPATHY, BJD MP on Twitter