CPI leader writes to PM, urges him to advise Shah on Hindi
NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah's assertion that Hindi was the only unifying factor in the making of a modern India was like denying the national reality, CPI leader Binoy Viswam said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday.
Shah on Saturday asserted that Hindi, as the most-spoken language in India, could work to unite the country
"No one in our country can deny the importance of Hindi that has played a significant role in the making of a modern India. But to say that it is the only unifying factor is equal to shutting our eyes to the national reality. It is an expression of contempt towards all other Indian languages that have contributed tremendously to the nation's unity and its march to social progress.
"People justifiably believe that the Home Minister was advancing the idea of 'One Nation, One Language', which is unacceptable to a multi-linguistic country like India," the Rajya Sabha member of the Communist Party of India (CPI) wrote in the letter to the prime minister.
He further said Shah's attempt to highlight Hindi in such a manner could be conceived as a move to depict all other Indian languages spoken by crores of people as "anti-national".
"That may be in tune with the ideology of the RSS, which preaches that there is a need for a 'chosen' religion and language for the nation. It runs contrary to the pluralistic polity of India and the basic foundations of the Indian Constitution. The Home Minister of the country is expected to render allegiance to the Constitution of the country more than anything else," Viswam said.
He alleged that instead of addressing the burning issues concerning the people of the country, the government was busy fanning up new and even newer controversies -- from Ayodhya to Kashmir, from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to Hindi.
"People are witness to it. This can rightly be construed as part of a strategy aimed at diverting people's attention from their day-to-day hardships. I am constrained to state that this is not what people would like to have from a government that came to power with a promise of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas'," the Left leader wrote in the letter.
Urging the prime minister to advise Shah to desist from making such "unsubstantiated statements", he demanded that the home minister withdraw this "biased and narrow-minded outburst" that undermined the self-respect of all Indian languages.