New Delhi: Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, today clarified his statement over Hindi and blunted the opposition criticism against his speech he delivered during ‘Hindi Divas’.
Amit Shah said, “I never asked for imposing Hindi over other regional languages and 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, it’s their choice.”
On the occasion of Hindi Divas, the Home Minister stressed on the importance of Hindi and its propagation. He suggested that Hindi could be an unifying language of the country and identified by the world.
In his speech he had said, “There are several languages in India and they have their own value, but it is important for the nation to have one language that it is identified by in the world. If there is one language that can unite the country, it’s Hindi.”
However, the opposition eying his speech to create chaos and disunity in the country latched on to his comments and began spreading the lie that the Central government was trying to impose the language over the non-Hindi speaking states.
Tamil Nadu leaders like Stalin and Kamal Hassan came out heavily against his statements. Congress leaders also joined in the fray, so did the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, and Kerala Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan.
The opposition leaders deliberately tried to twist Amit Shah’s statement, where he had specifically spoke about the importance of learning mother tongue.
Amit Shah’s sharp reply to the opposition has blunted their accusations. Being from a non-Hindi speaking state, Gujarat, the Home Minister has exposed the bluff of opposition claiming that the Minister was trying to impose Hindi all over India forcefully.
Interestingly, BJP leader Kiren Rijju, had released a video when Congress leader P. Chidambaram, during his stint as Union Minister, speaking on Hindi Divas. He is seen delivering his speech in Hindi and stressing the need for propagating Hindi in the country.
