There can never be a competition between Hindi and other Indian languages because official language Hindi is their friend and they complement each other, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday on the occasion of Hindi Diwas.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi greeted the people of the country on this e occasion. “Best wishes to the people of the country on Hindi Diwas,” Modi said in a social media post in Hindi.

Hindi Diwas is celebrated every year on September 14 to mark the adaptation of Hindi as the official language by the Constituent Assembly on September 14, 1949.

Addressing the fourth Akhil Bhartiya Rajbhasha Sammelan on the occasion of Hindi Diwas, Shah also said the promotion of the official language Hindi cannot happen until all other Indian languages are strengthened and the official language does not establish a dialogue with all of them.

The home minister said the Hindi Diwas is an occasion to take a pledge to make Hindi a communication language, a common language, a technical language and now an international language.

“We are celebrating Diamond Jubilee to mark the completion of 75 years of Hindi as the official language. By accepting Hindi as the official language and connecting all the local languages of the country through Hindi, we are moving towards preserving and promoting our culture, languages, literature, art and grammar,” he said.

Shah said Hindi is more of a geo-cultural language rather than a geo-political language.  He said all communications through files of his two ministries . Home and Cooperation  are done through Hindi.  “It took three years to reach this stage,” he said. Earlier, extending greetings on the occasion of the Hindi Diwas, Shah also said it was the spirit of the Constituent Assembly that all citizens of the country should communicate with each other in an Indian language, be it Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam or Gujarati. “By strengthening Hindi, all these languages will also become flexible and prosperous and with the practice of integration, all languages will also take forward our culture, history, literature, grammar and the ‘sanskar’,” he said in a video message.The home minister said the Hindi Diwas this year is very important for everyone because on September 14, 1949, the Constituent Assembly of India accepted Hindi as the official language of the Union.

“Hindi has seen many ups and downs in 75 years but at this juncture, I can definitely say that Hindi has no competition with any local language. Hindi is a friend (sakhi) of all Indian languages and they complement each other. Whether it is Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil or Bangla, every language strengthens Hindi and Hindi strengthens every language,” he said. Shah said if the Hindi movement is looked at carefully whether it is Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Lala Lajpat Rai, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose or Acharya J B Kriplani, all of them hailed from the non-Hindi speaking areas.

He said the committee formed under the leadership of N Gopalaswamy Ayyangar and K M Munshi had presented a report to the Constituent Assembly to recognise Hindi as the official language and give strength to Hindi and all other languages.

“Both these leaders also hailed from non-Hindi speaking areas,” he said.

The home minister said under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, a lot of work has been done to strengthen Hindi and local languages in the last 10 years. Shah said Prime Minister Modi has given a new life to Hindi and all Indian languages by giving an important place to imparting primary education in mother tongue in the new education policy.