Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju dismissed any directive issued by the government to declare Hindi as the dominating language. “The controversy on Hindi is unwarranted. There is no directive that Hindi must be the dominating language. We want every language to get due importance,” he said.
The statement from the MoS Home Affairs came after DMK chief Karunanidhi earlier in the day criticised the Narendra Modi government of ‘promoting’ Hindi language by overlooking other regional languages. Rijiu, however, argued that Hindi being the official language needed to be promoted but it was not being done by discouraging regional languages.
Karunanidhi lambasted the Home Ministry over its directives to political leaders asking them to use Hindi for interaction on social media platforms. He accused the government of imposing the Hindi language on other states and treating non-Hindi speakers as second class citizens.
He said the Modi government should maintain its focus on delivering economic and social development. “All well wishers want Modi to focus on economic and social development. Language battlefields have not yet dried. History has recorded anti – Hindi agitation. Can we forget Nehru’s assurance that English would be official language as long as non Hindi speakers want? No attempt made to make official language of states as official languages of Centre,” said the party chief.
