NEW DELHI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that “unity and diversity is the strength of our nation but a national language is needed so that foreign languages do not overpower our own”.

Emphasizing that Hindi was the “heart and soul of our freedom struggle”, Amit Shah, while speaking at a Rajbhasha award ceremony on Hindi Divas Samaroh 2019 in the national capital, said, “Let us make Hindi the most widely used language in the world.” However, he clarified that “Hindi is the language of coexistence and its growth will never be at the cost of any language”.

His remarks, however, drew sharp reactions from several opposition parties.

“It's shocking. It will surely affect India’s unity. On behalf of DMK, I would urge him (Amit Shah) to take back that view of his,” DMK chief M K Stalin said in Chennai.

PMK Founder S Ramadoss tweeted, “Shah's views on Hindi to be India's single language is wrong. Hindi can't be forced on the people speaking other languages.”

Congress said the three-language formula should not be tinkered with and controversies must not be stirred up on “emotive” issues settled by Constitution-makers.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, in a tweet, called for respecting all languages and cultures. “We may learn many languages, but we should not forget our mother language.”

While awarding government departments, public sector units, writers and poets for their exemplary work in promoting Rajbhasha, the home minister recalled Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel, who, he said, had “appealed to people to accept Hindi as the national language”.

Noting the unanimous consensus on Hindi as the national language in the Constituent Assembly in spite of the Assembly’s sheer diversity, the minister said the “decision was an important factor in ensuring cultural unity of India”.

Amit Shah said that from next year, Hindi Divas would be celebrated as a public event. “Hindi movement should reach people and therefore from next year, Hindi Divas would be celebrated in public places outside the capital as well, and not just for one day but for a week”, he said.

Saying that “India has 122 languages and over 19,500 dialects”, the home minister said, “These (languages) are our strength. The depth of Indian languages is unparalleled because of the equally unparalleled depth of Indian culture”.

Shah warned that a country that forgets its language kills its cultural existence. “Language connects us to the roots of the nation,” he said. The minister stressed that “we must leave the inferiority complex towards Hindi and our other languages that has set in due to the colonial hangover”. Noting the role of teachers in the growth of languages, he said that “teachers and educators must instil a sense of pride about Hindi in students”.

About his own ministry, he said, “When I took over as home minister, almost all files were in English. But today, I get over 60% of files in Hindi.” He called for a “greater use of the national language in all aspects of life.”

Amit Shah recalled Vinoba Bhave’s love for Hindi and Gandhiji’s assertion that a “nation is mute without its national language”.

He remembered former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the first external affairs minister to give a speech in Hindi at the UN in 1977. He also hailed former foreign minister Sushma Swaraj’s contribution to the global growth of Hindi. “Sushmaji pushed the UN for starting a Hindi news bulletin and also played an important role in getting a Hindi Twitter account opened by the UN,” he said. He also praised PM Narendra Modi’s commitment to Hindi. “Whenever the PM addressed expatriates, he spoke in Hindi. Modi ji also addressed the UNGA and the World Economic Forum in Davos in Hindi,” he said.

At the function, the minister launched ‘e-saral Hindi vakya kosh’ and ‘e-maha shabda kosh mobile app’ to harness information technology for the growth of Hindi.

