HM for promotion of Hindi with regional languages, S Indian parties protest move
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday created a flutter as he pitched for “one nation, one language” while espousing the cause of Hindi, which, he said, is spoken by most of the people in India, and can become country’s identity globally and unite the nation.
Shah’s pitch on “Hindi Diwas” was instantly opposed, mostly by the Dravidian and southern political parties like DMK, AIADMK and AMIM besides the Congress, Trinamool Congress and the CPI, with the common refrain being that any move for imposition of Hindi would disintegrate the country and its promotion should not be at the cost of the mother tongue or a native language.
Maintaining that it was important to have a common language in the country that becomes the “mark of India’s identity globally”, Shah said, “I want to appeal to people to promote their native languages but also use Hindi to make the dream of Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) and Sardar (Vallabhbhai) Patel of one language come true.”
The Home Minister also said efforts will be made to expand Hindi to different parts of the country and asked everyone to use their native languages as much as possible.
“India has many languages and every language has its importance. But it is absolutely necessary that the entire country should have one language that becomes India’s identity globally,” he said in a series of tweets in Hindi.
Shah said that today, if any language which can unite the country, it is Hindi that is spoken the most. “Next year we will hold the Hindi Divas functions in different parts of the country. I appeal to every parents to speak to their children in their own language and also with the co-workers,” he said.
The Prime Minister also tweeted in Hindi to say, “The simplicity, spontaneity and elegance of a language provide meaningfulness to expression. Hindi has incorporated all of these aspects beautifully”.
Supporting the pro-Hindi stance, Lok Janshakti Party leader and Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan advocated an all-round promotion of Hindi, saying the Constitution should be amended to ensure the use of Indian languages in the Supreme Court and all high courts of the country.
The Congress said the three-language formula (Hindi, English and the regional language of the respective States) should not be tinkered with. “We should not stir up controversies on emotive and sensitive issues which have been settled by the maturity of India’s Constitution-makers and the Prime Minister after Independence, especially I am referring to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru,” Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma said.
DMK’s Stalin urged Shah to withdraw his statement and said, “When our Constitution says all languages must be treated with equality, the Home Minister’s statement which upholds Hindi above other languages is disrupting India’s integrity and I strongly condemn that.”
Despite its leanings towards the BJP, the AIADMK too came out openly against it. Tamil Nadu Culture Minister K Pandiarajan cautioned the Government saying, “If the Centre imposes Hindi unilaterally, there will only be (adverse) reaction and no support, not only in Tamil Nadu, but also in States like Bengal, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.” The MDMK too opposed the proposed move.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee sought to sit on a middle path on the issue. In a nuanced stance, she said people should respect all languages and cultures equally but not at the cost of their mother tongues. Greeting people on the occasion of Hindi Divas, Banerjee tweeted, “My best wishes to all on #HindiDiwas. We should respect all languages and cultures equally. We may learn many languages but we should never forget our mother-language.” She also posted the greetings in another tweet in Hindi.
For its part, the CPI issued a statement saying the Home Minister’s statement is an attack on federalism extending the politics and ideology of RSS to every sphere of life. And AMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said Hindi isn’t every Indian’s “mother tongue”. “India’s much bigger than Hindi, Hindu, Hindutva,” he tweeted. The Opposition Congress and JD(S) leaders in Karnataka termed Hindi Diwas as an ‘imposition’ of the language.
Hindi Divas is observed to mark the decision of the Constituent Assembly to extend official language status to Hindi on this day in 1949. It was first observed in 1953.