Prez tells Hindi speakers to give more respect to other languages

President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday asked Hindi-speaking people to give more respect and space to regional languages and their speakers in a bid to make Hindi more popular across the country.

Addressing a function on the occasion of ‘Hindi Divas’, the President said Hindi continued to face opposition in some parts of the country even after becoming one of the country’s official languages way back in 1950.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh, who was also present at the function organised by his ministry, said in his address that Hindi could be enriched further if its speakers also used words from other languages.

President Kovind said there was a feeling among some that Hindi was being imposed on them.

“Non-Hindi speaking people desire that we (Hindi-speaking people) give attention to their languages. Those who speak Hindi should give space to other

MP Satyavrat Chaturvedi created a scene at the Hindi Divas function after an official did not acknowledge the contributions of a parliamentary panel in the growth and expansion of the language.

Chaturvedi stood up to express his displeasure when Prabhas Kumar Jha, secretary, department of official language, was delivering the vote of thanks.

“Mr secretary, you have thanked everyone but the MPs belonging to the parliamentary committee on official language. We have

languages. We all have the responsibility to give respect to non-Hindi speaking people and regional languages,” he said.

Kovind suggested that those who speak Hindi should greet a Tamilian with a ‘vanakkam’, a visited the whole country and did our best for the growth and expansion of Hindi. But you just chose to ignore us,” he said.

Around 1,000 people attended the event held at the Vigyan Bhavan.

Jha, on his part, said Union minister of state for home affairs Kiren Rijiju had already appreciated the role of the MPs in his welcome address.

Though the secretary apologised, the 67-year-old Rajya Sabha member from Madhya Pradesh continued to express unhappiness. PTI

Sikh with ‘Sat Sri Akal’ and a Muslim with an ‘Adaab’ -- words of greeting in Tamil, among Sikhs and in Urdu, respectively. They should use the word ‘Garu’ (sir) while addressing a Teluguspeaking person, he said.