Only requested for learning it as the second language, says Union Home Minister.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday claimed that he did not push for Hindi over regional languages.

Referring to his speech on the occasion of Hindi Divas on Saturday where he made a pitch for a common language for India, the Home Minister said that to end the confusion, people should listen to his speech carefully but “if someone wants to do politics, it is their choice.”

“I have just made the request. I have failed to understand what is wrong in that,” he said at an event organised by Hindi daily Hindustan in Ranchi.

Clarifying his comments, he said, “A child can perform, a child’s proper mental growth is possible only when the child studies in mother tongue. Mother tongue does not mean Hindi. It is the language of a particular State, like Gujarati in my State. But there should be one language in the country, if someone wants to learn another language, it should be Hindi.”

The Congress said the three-language formula should not be tinkered with.

“The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly opposes these efforts which stem from the RSS conception of one nation, one culture, one language,” said the party in a statement.

The CPI also described Mr. Shah’s comments as an “attack on the very concept of diversity.”

DMK president M.K. Stalin alleged that the Centre was indulging in “autocratic imposition of Hindi.” He said Tamil was sidelined in the competitive examinations conducted by the Railway and the Postal departments.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said it was a planned attempt to divert attention from real issues, while his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee tweeted: “My best wishes to all on Hindi Diwas. We should respect all languages and cultures equally. We may learn many languages but we should never forget our mother-language.”

(With PTI inputs)