CHENNAI: Political parties in Tamil Nadu on Friday took strong exception to the suggestion of Union Home Minister Amit Shah that people of different States should communicate with each other in Hindi, and not in English.
They are of the view that the BJP, which has been trying to divide the people on communal lines so far, is now trying to create a linguistic divide.
In hard-hitting tweets, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin said, "Amit Shah's suggestion is an idea to wreck the unity of the country. A single language (for the entire country) will not help ensure unity. Also, uniformity does not breed unity...You (BJP) have been repeating the same mistake. But you won't succeed."
The CM went on to say: "The BJP has been engaging itself in damaging the diversity of India. Does the Union Minister think that only Hindi-speaking States are sufficient and other Indian States are not necessary?"
Echoing the views of the CM, TNCC president KS Alagiri, in a detailed statement, said, "The BJP which has been trying to gain political mileage by dividing the people on communal lines, is now trying its hands on doing the same by imposing Hindi. This will endanger the unity of India."
Alagiri also said the remarks made by Amit Shah on Friday were against the Constitution as well as the Official Languages Act. "If Hindi is imposed on non-Hindi speaking States in lieu of English, then the people of non-Hindi speaking States will be forced to undertake a massive struggle," he warned.
Recalling the assurance given by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that English would continue as another official language along with Hindi as long as the people of non-Hindi speaking States wish, Alagiri said, "This assurance of Nehru continues to be the shield for non-Hindi speaking States."
Expressing shock over the remarks of Amit Shah, PMK founder S Ramadoss said, "What the Union Home Minister implies is that Hindi will be imposed on non-Hindi speaking States. Though Hindi is a language that is spoken by a slightly larger section of people, it should not be imposed on others. This has been the demand of non-Hindi speaking States for the past 85 years. Only after accepting this, former PM Nehru had allowed English to continue as a link language."
"If there is a language eligible to be made as link language of entire India, it is Tamil. No other language has that eligibility. However, since we don’t wish to impose Tamil on others, we demand to declare all languages in the Eighth Schedule as official languages. So, the wishes and sentiments of all States should be respected," Ramadoss added.
VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan too expressed serious concern. "There are 22 official languages for India. Hindi is one of them. The number of people speaking other languages is many times more. But Amit Shah is keen on destroying the rights of people who speak languages other than Hindi as well as the diversity of the country," he said.
Stating that this view of Amit Shah is not new, the VCK leader in his tweets, said, "Indeed, it is a dangerous effort to impose a fascist idea - 'One Nation, One Language'. They are trying to cheat the people by placing arguments that English is a foreign language."