TN parties see red over Home Minister’s Hindi pride speech

DMK led Opposition came down heavily on the Union Home Minister for endorsing Hindi as the “common language” uniting the country. Condemning the “one nation, one language” statement made by Shah in his “Hindi Divas” (Hindi day) message, DMK president MK Stalin on Saturday cautioned that his party along with like-minded friends in Tamil Nadu and other States losing their rights due to Hindi imposition would wage a democratic war against the Centre.

Warning that the country is “India and not Hindia”, Stalin urged the Union Home Minister to withdraw the statement. “The preamble of the Constitution says India is a union of States. The greatest strength of India is its unity in diversity. It is the nations’ cultural identity. BJP has been attempting to destroy the unity with a hidden agenda since the day it came to power,” Stalin said in a statement. “Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement endorsing ‘one nation, one language’ policy seems to be an attempt to make the majority non-Hindi speaking people second-class citizens,” added Stalin.

However, State Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar sought to allay the fears of the opposition and said the two-language policy being followed since the days of CN Annadurai would be followed, as did their leaders MGR and J Jayalalithaa. “Imposition of Hindi is not accepted by the people of Tamil Nadu. We (AIADMK) will not impose it either,” the minister added.

AIADMK leader and Tamil culture Minister K Pandiarajan said: “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.”

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday pitched for a common language for the country and said as Hindi is spoken the most, it can unite the whole country. “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. The HM also asked everyone to use their native languages as much as possible but said efforts will be made to expand Hindi’s reach in the country.More on P8