india

Updated: Jun 29, 2020 22:15 IST

Major opposition parties in Karnataka have disapproved Hindi as India’s potential national language in reaction to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement that the country’s most widely spoken language could unify it and create a global identity. Shah, however, had also described India’s linguistic diversity as the country’s “biggest strength”.

Senior Karnataka leaders from the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) led the outcry against the alleged selective promotion of Hindi vis a vis other regional languages, particularly Kannada.

Former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy asked the Central government when it intended to similarly celebrate other languages as well.

“Today Hindi Diwas is being celebrated across the country. When will Narendra Modi celebrate Kannada, as it is also an official language like Hindi as per the Constitution. I hope you remember that Kannadigas are also a part of the federal set-up,” he tweeted.

Also Read: ‘This is India not Hindia’: Tamil Nadu parties reject Amit Shah’s views on Hindi as a national unifier

Kumaraswamy’s comments came on a day of protests by a group of youths against the “imposition of Hindi” at the Bengaluru Town Hall.

Meanwhile, former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of the Congress said languages could be promoted only in an atmosphere of love and not through imposition and pressure. “Let there be an end to the lie that Hindi is the national language. Like Kannada it is one of 22 official languages. A language cannot be promoted through lies and falsehood, it grows through exchange,” he tweeted.

He went on to add that his opposition of the celebration of Hindi Diwas was not against Hindi but its “forceful imposition”.

Also Read: What RSS said about Hindi as a national language 50 years ago

Karnataka Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao said that projecting Hindi above other languages was just a means of diversion. “I do not understand why this is even a topic of discussion at the moment. There are many problems facing the people of the country, is this the time to be talking about language,” he asked.