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Attempts being made to spark controversy over language: PM Modi at BJP meet
Prime Minister Modi’s remarks come amid an ongoing debate over whether Hindi should be considered India’s national language.
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that language diversity is the pride of the country, but attempts are being made to spark controversies over it.
“In the past few days, we have seen that attempts are being made to spark controversies on the basis of languages. The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) sees a reflection of Indian culture in every regional language and considers them worth worshipping… It is a link to the country’s better future,” said Modi while virtually addressing party members on the inaugural day of the two-day national meeting of BJP office-bearers at Jaipur.
Noting that the National Education Policy (NEP) has given importance to all regional languages, Modi said, “This shows our commitment to regional languages.”
Modi’s remarks come amid an ongoing debate over whether Hindi should be considered India’s national language.
Last month, Union home minister Amit Shah, who is the chairman of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee, told members that 70% of the agenda of the Union cabinet was now prepared in Hindi. A statement from the ministry of home affairs quoted Shah as saying that the time had come to make Hindi an important part of the unity of the country. He added that when citizens of states who speak other languages communicate with each other, it should be in the language of India, and Hindi should be accepted as an alternative to English and not to local languages.
The statement had triggered a row, with opposition calling it an assault on India’s pluralism and accused BJP of imposing Hindi.
Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh had said that Shah was doing a “disservice to Hindi by imposing it”. In a tweet on April 8, Ramesh said, “Hindi is Raj Bhasha not Rashtra Bhasha, as Rajnath Singh said in Parliament when he was HM. Hindi imperialism will be the death knell for India. I’m very comfortable with Hindi, but I don’t want it rammed down anybody’s throat. Amit Shah is doing a disservice to Hindi by imposing it.”
