Hindi pitch is against ‘integrity’ of country, says Stalin as row erupts
BENGALURU: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’S thrust on Hindi is against India’s “integrity and pluralism”, and will not succeed, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin said on Friday.
Referring to remarks by Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday that Hindi should be accepted as an alternative to English, and not to local languages, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief tweeted: “Does @Amitshah think that ‘Hindi state’ is enough and Indian states are not needed?”a single language would not help unity, and the character of being singular cannot create integrity, he added.
“You are making the same mistake again and again. Howincrease
ever, you will not succeed!” the chief minister said on Twitter.
A purported Hindi push by the Centre has been a major issue across southern states for several decades.
Presiding over the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee in Delhi on Thursday, Shah said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had decided that the medium of running the government is the official language, and this will
the importance of Hindi. According to a statement issued by the Union home ministry, Shah informed members that now 70% of the agenda of the Cabinet will be prepared in Hindi. The time has come to make Hindi an important part of the unity of the country, he said.
Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah also accused the BJP of trying to unleash its agenda of “cultural terrorism” against nonhindi speaking states.
Karnataka minister K Sudhakar countered the charges. “He (Shah) said when communicating with others who do not know the local language, instead of speaking in a foreign language (English), speak in Hindi which is the national language. What is wrong with this? He did not say leave Kannada and speak Hindi,” Sudhakar said.