NEW DELHI: Away from the backlash over the Union Home Ministry’s directive, particularly from Tamil Nadu, the sole representative of the State in Narendra Modi’s Council of Ministers, Pon Radhakrishnan, has been taking Hindi lessons like a diligent student. Ever since he moved here to join the new government as MoS for Heavy Industries, Radhakrishnan said he has been spending the first few hours of the day brushing up on his Hindi.
A self-taught man of simple ways, Ponna, as he his fondly called in BJP circles, is mostly depending on Hindi dailies for lessons in the lingua franca of northern India. “I read the headlines of at least four Hindi newspapers loudly every morning,” he said in an interview to Express. In fact, to show his progress, the minister read out a few articles from the day’s paper and asked for a rating of his skills on a scale of 10. The MoS has also been taking the help of friends to gather quality reading material. He, however, is still shy about switching over to Hindi while talking to his personal staff and Cabinet Minister Anant Geete.