'Never opposed Hindi': Pawan Kalyan amid row over 'Tamil movie dubbing' remark

The Andhra Pradesh deputy CM's remarks came in the backdrop of the row triggered by his ‘movie dub’ statement earlier in the day.

Amid the brewing tensions over his remark on Tamil movies being ‘dubbed’ in Hindi, Andhra Pradesh deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan on Saturday issued a clarification, saying that he "never opposed the Hindi language".

Pawan Kalyan had earlier emphasised on the need for linguistic diversity in India, advocating for multiple languages including Tamil. (File Image)

The Jana Sena Party chief took to X and condemned the misinterpretation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 "for a political agenda" and dismissed claims of him changing his stance on the policy, saying that it shows a "lack of mutual understanding".

He affirmed that his party stands stern for linguistic freedom and its principles, and the educational choice for every India.

"Both the tendencies of forcible imposition of a language or blindly opposing a language are not helpful in achieving the basic objective of national and cultural unity of our country India," Kalyan said.

In the backdrop of the tiff between the central government and the Tamil Nadu administration over the alleged 'Hindi imposition' with NEP's three-language policy, Kalyan had said that while these leaders oppose Hindi, they allow Tamil films to be dubbed in the language for financial gain.

"I do not understand why some criticise Sanskrit. Why do Tamil Nadu politicians oppose Hindi while allowing their movies to be dubbed in Hindi for financial gain? They want money from Bollywood but refuse to accept Hindi--what kind of logic is that?" he said while addressing his Jana Sena Party's 12th foundation day celebrations in Kakinada's Pithampuram.

His remarks drew massive ire from the DMK and other leaders as well, including actor-politician Prakash Raj.

While DMK accused him of hypocrisy, saying that he does not know anything about "state politics", Prakash Raj schooled him that the row is not about hating another language but about protecting "our mother tongue and cultural identity".

Meanwhile, in his clarification, Kalyan said that he never opposed Hindi language, but only those "making it compulsory for everyone".

"When the NEP-2020 itself does not make Hindi compulsory, then making false statements about its implementation is nothing but misleading the public," he wrote in Hindi in his X post.

The actor-politician further explained that under the NEP, students have an option to learn any two Indian languages (including their mother tongue) along with a foreign language. "If they don't want to study Hindi, they can choose Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Assamese, Kashmiri, Odia, Bengali, Punjabi, Sindhi, Bodo, Dogri, Konkani, Maithili, Meitei, Nepali, Santhali, Urdu or any other Indian language," he added.

Kalyan said that the purpose of the multilingual (three-language) policy is to provide a wider range of choice to students, promoting national integration and preserving the country's rich linguistic diversity. "Misinterpreting this policy for a political agenda and claiming that I have changed my stand on it only shows a lack of mutual understanding," Andhra's deputy CM noted.