Chief Minister MK Stalin’s party DMK has historically led anti-Hindi-imposition protests.
“Projecting Hindi speakers alone as Indian citizens and others as second-class citizens reeks of divide-and-rule,” said Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin today as the Parliament’s language committee reportedly said Centre-run educational institutions should switch away from English to “Hindi or local language”, and that the UN be asked to make Hindi one of its official languages.
“Don’t impose another language war on us,” Mr Stalin said, directing his words at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose party BJP, as a stated policy, favours Hindi as a link among all states.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah heads the Committee of Parliament on Official Language — to review progress in Hindi use — which submitted its latest report to President Droupadi Murmu last month.
Recommending that local languages be preferred over English in all states, the committee divided states and union territories into three groups on the basis of Hindi use.
In Category ‘A’, where the committee wants “Hindi be used 100 per cent”, are UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
PM Modi’s home state Gujarat is in category B, along with Maharashtra, Punjab, and the UTs of Chandigarh, Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
The rest of India, including southern states, falls in group ‘C’.
“The government ought to treat all Eighth Schedule languages as official languages,” said MK Stalin, whose party DMK was among drivers of historic anti-Hindi-imposition protests in the South over 50 years ago. Schedule 8 of India’s Constitution recognises 22 languages, includi
ng Hindi and Tamil, as official.
As for the committee report, it is up to the President to accept it or not.
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Source link: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/tamil-nadus-mk-stalin-to-pm-modi-on-hindi-committee-report-dont-impose-another-language-war-3418117