Chennai, Oct 16 (BPNS)
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin on Sunday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi sharing his anxiety on the continuous efforts of the central government to impose Hindi under the ‘one nation theory’ in non-Hindi speaking states.
Stalin in the letter said that this continued efforts to impose Hindi on non-Hindi speaking people would destroy the feeling of the brotherhood of people of different languages and cultures and is determinantal to the integrity of India.
He said that India stood as a shining example for multi-lingual and multi-cultural democracy and mentioned that the recent attempts to implement Hindi are impractical and divisive in character.
Stalin in the letter said, “ The recent attempts to impose Hindi are impractical and divisive in character and puts non- Hindi speaking people in a very disadvantageous position in many respects.”
In the letter, he further said that this was not acceptable not only to Tamil Nadu but also to any state that respects and values its mother tongue.
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister said that approach of the Union Government should be to include all languages including Tamil in the Eighth schedule of the constitution.
He also referred to a report of the parliamentary subcommittee on official languages which had reportedly recommended that Hindi should be the compulsory medium of instruction in educational institutions of the Union Governments such as the IITs ,IIMs, AIIMS and central universities. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister also said that it was also recommended that Hindi should replace English.
Chief Minister in the letter also said that the number of people speaking non –Hindi languages in the country was numerically more than Hindi-speaking people in the country. He also further mentioned that each language has its own specialty with its uniqueness and linguistic culture.
He also emphasized that several youths in Tamil Nadu had sacrificed their lives in 1965 in the anti-Hindi agitations that erupted in part of Tamil Nadu. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister in the letter also pointed out that Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru respected the sentiments of the people and assured that English would continue to be one of the official languages as long as non-Hindi speaking people want.
In the letter, he also mentioned that the resolutions adopted in 1968 and 1976 on official languages and rules laid down, it was ensured that both Hindi and English could be used in Union government services.
