HINDI PUSH A BID TO CREATE NEW BATTLEFIELD, SAYS KERALA CM

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/CHENNAI/ BENGALURU: Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday continued to face criticism from political leaders of southern states for pitching Hindi as the unifying language of India, with Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan saying it was a “planned attempt” to divert attention from pressing national issues, and Congress leader Siddaramaiah calling Shah a “home-wrecker”.

Speaking at a function to mark Hindi Divas on Saturday, Shah said that while “unity in diversity” is India’s defining trait, the nation needed one language that it could be identified by globally. “Today, if there is one language that can bind the nation, it’s Hindi, the most widely-spoken language of the country,” he said.

Vijayan said on Sunday Shah’s remark was as a “war cry” against the mother tongues of non-Hindi speaking people.

“Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s Hindi agenda push despite nationwide protest needs to be seen as Sangh Parivar’s signs to launch a new battlefield in the name of the language. The perception that only Hindi can unite the country is completely wrong,” Vijayan wrote in a Facebook post.

India is home to 122 languages and more than 19,500 dialects, according to the latest census. Twenty-two are recognised as official languages in the Constitution.

According to Census 2011, the number of people who said their mother tongue was Hindi was more than 528 million, or 43.63% of the population.