People from different states should speak in Hindi, not in English: Amit Shah

New Delhi, 09 April 2022 [Fik/News Sources]: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday suggested that people from different states should communicate with each other in Hindi, and not English.

Shah clarified that Hindi should be accepted as an alternative language to English, and not local languages. He also suggested that Hindi should be made more flexible by accepting words from the other local languages.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided that the medium of running the government is the Official Language, and this will definitely increase the importance of Hindi. Now the time has come to make the Official Language an important part of the unity of the country. When citizens of States who speak other languages communicate with each other, it should be in the language of India,” Shah was quoted by the Ministry of Home Affairs as having said while presiding over the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee.

Shah, who is chairperson of the Official Language Committee stressed the need to give elementary knowledge of Hindi to students up to Class 9th and pay more attention to Hindi teaching examinations. Vice-Chairman of the Committee, Bhritahari Mahtab was also present.

According to MHA, Shah informed members that 70 percent of the agenda of the Cabinet is now prepared in Hindi. He said 22,000 Hindi teachers have been recruited in the eight states of the Northeast, and nine tribal communities of the region have converted scripts of their dialects to Devanagari.

All these states have also agreed to make Hindi compulsory in schools up to Class X, Shah said.

The ministry said the committee had unanimously approved sending the 11th volume of the committee’s report to the President.

Shah’s remarks drew severe criticism from the opposition parties.

The CPI(M) called it an attack on the core principles of India’s diversity, while Congress leader Rajeev Gowda reminded BJP that Article 29 of the Constitution honored multiple languages.

Since then, Shah has toned down his advocacy of Hindi language. He clarified that Hindi is not competing with any other regional language and is merely complementing them.