Although the HRD ministry has refused to soften its stand on dropping German as a third language in Kendriya Vidyalayas, German Ambassador to India Michael Steiner insists the government will find a “practical” solution to the row. In a chat with Ritika Chopra, he confirms that PM Narendra Modi will be attending the Hannover Fair next April. Edited excerpts:In principle, students should be taught Indian languages, but they should also have the option of learning other languages. If you ask me, there are many reasons, economic and cultural, for why children should learn German. It is the most widely spoken mother tongue in Europe. It’s the mother tongue of the economic powerhouse in Europe and a country with the lowest youth unemployment rate. It is the mother tongue of the country where universities don’t ask for tuition fees.I don’t think this is the issue here. What I see in this government is the will to find a practical solution, which allows kids to learn a foreign language.This confirms my point that the minister also seeks for a solution, which allows German teaching to continue. We, of course, respect the Indian law, but we would also like to continue offering a programme that was and is very successful.Until this summer, even till September, we were getting a very positive and enthusiastic reaction from the government, students, state governments and schools. We were not aware that there are any legal problems.I can only give you an idea of the contribution made by the German government, which is 2.2 million euros over the last three years. In terms of scale, the MoU between the KVS and Max Mueller Bhavan was the largest programme that the German government has entered into with any country.We need two things to promote a language, one is the interest of students and parents, and two, is that we need the means to provide teachers and curriculum. India is on the move again and youngsters in Germany would soon be interested in Hindi. I say this because we have the example of Chinese in our country. Twenty years ago no one in Germany was interested in Chinese. China’s economic rise has led to an interest in Chinese language. We now have 40 universities and 120 schools who teach Chinese. I can only tell you that the Germans will be more than happy to promote Hindi and there is no legal problem with it.I think we should not mix the two issues. I am confident that we’ll find a solution to the language issue. The second issue was something else. I felt that we cannot, on one hand, say that India is the largest democracy with functioning institutions and then also say that we know better than the courts in India which have not found anything against PM Modi. He, at that time, was elected for the third time as Chief Minister. We had to accept him as an elected leader. It was not a political motive. The idea to avoid a doublespeak.I wanted to have a meeting with (Sanskrit) teachers. It’s true that Batra was also there and I wasn’t aware that he will be there. But that was fine with me. I wanted to approach them to tell them that our position is one that deeply respects Sanskrit. There are breath-taking similarities between German and Sanskrit. I think this is one of the reasons why Indian kids are so good at learning German. I want to have a conference of scholars from India and Germany to look into this.Yes, the Indian PM will visit the Hannover industrial fair next year. It opens on the April 12 and India will be partner country of the fair, succeeding US and China. The PM will be visiting Berlin and other cities. This is huge opportunity for India as it can show and prove that it’s on the move again. And I think it fits perfectly because by April the Modi government would have been in power for almost a year and by then the industry and government can show what it has achieved and where it wants to go.There are absolutely legitimate procedures in India for this. We think that the Eurofighter is pretty good fighter plane but it’s for the Indian government to decide it. We are not going to lobby.