Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday (September 18) cleared the controversy fomented by the opposition over his remarks on the Hindi language. Slamming those indulging in language politics Shah said he has never asked for imposition of Hindi anywhere in the country but advocated its use as the second language after one’s mother tongue.
“I too come from a non-Hindi speaking state. I come from Gujarat where Gujarati is the language, not Hindi. One has to listen to my speech carefully. If someone wants to do politics, it is their choice,” Shah issued a clarification, as reported by ANI.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah: I never asked for imposing Hindi over other regional languages&had only requested for learning Hindi as the 2nd language after one’s mother tongue. I myself come from a non-Hindi state of Gujarat. If some people want to do politics, its their choice pic.twitter.com/JXS3VFTKUl
— ANI (@ANI) September 18, 2019
Amit Shah on the occasion of Hindi Diwas on Saturday appealed to the citizens to increase the use of Hindi. Speaking at a function to commemorate Hindi Diwas, Shah hailed the diversity of languages and dialects in the country that he stressed was the “strength of our nation”.
“But there is a need for our nation to have one language so that foreign languages don’t find a place. This is why our freedom fighters envisioned Hindi as ‘Raj bhasha’ (official language)” Amit Shah said at the event to mark the day the Constituent Assembly adopted Hindi written in Devanagari script as the central government’s official language.
His statement was, however, distorted and used to stir controversy. Immediately media was abuzz with reports that Amit Shah was seeking a common language for the country and had proposed Hindi’s name. This got the ball rolling and raised the hackles of political leaders in some non-Hindi speaking States, especially in South India.
This supposed proposal was criticised by South India’s actor turned politicians like Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth who claimed that a common language cannot be implemented in India.
However, Amit Shah in its efforts to end the confusion said at an event organised by a Hindi daily: “A child can perform, a child’s proper mental growth is possible only when the child studies in the mother tongue. Mother tongue does not mean Hindi. It is the language of a particular state, like Gujarati in my state. But there should be one language in the country, if someone wants to learn another language, it should be Hindi. I have just made a request. I have failed to understand what is wrong in that,” he said.
