Kumaraswamy: Govt running personal agenda by prioritizing Hindi over English

JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy joins debate after Siddaramaiah to bash Union Home Minister Amit Shah's 'Hindi should be accepted as an alternative to English' remark.

Coming down heavily on Union Home Minister Amit Shah's 'Hindi should be accepted as an alternative to English' statement, JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy on Friday alleged that the government is trying to "forcibly run personal agenda" adding that they will not succeed.

Former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy alleged that the government is trying to "forcibly run personal agenda" after Union Home Minister Amit Shah's 'Hindi should be accepted as an alternative to English' statement.  (HT File)

Speaking to ANI, Kumaraswamy said, "Central government and Home Minister are actually trying to forcibly run their personal agendas. But they won't succeed." The JD(S) leader further took on the Centre stating that the "people will teach them a lesson".

Siddaramaiah also fired at Amit Shah, tweeting that, "As a Kannadiga, I take strong offence to @HMOIndia @AmitShah's comment on Official language & medium of communication. Hindi is not our National Language & we will never let it to be."

"Imposing Hindi is a sign of coercive federalism rather than cooperative federalism. Myopic view of BJP regarding our languages needs to be corrected and their opinions are derived from pseudo-nationalists like Savarkar," Siddaramaiah added.

Asked about the Al-Qaeda video on the hijab row he said that it is the government's responsibility to unearth the truth. "I don't want to be involved in that. It is the government's responsibility to expose the falsehood and bring out the truth."

Meanwhile, Shah on Thursday emphasized on the need to accept Hindi as an alternative to English and not to local languages.

"Hindi should be accepted as an alternative to English and not to local languages," Shah said, adding, "unless we make Hindi flexible by accepting words from other local languages, it will not be propagated".

He said that now the time has come to make the Official Language an important part of the unity of the country.

(ANI)