Opposition slams Amit Shah’s National language pitch
Home Minister Amit Shah’s pitch for the Hindi language provoked trenchant criticism on Friday, with opposition parties calling it an assault on India’s pluralism and asserting they will thwart the move to impose “Hindi imperialism”.
The main opposition Congress accused Shah of trying to impose Hindi, and said in doing so he is doing a disservice to the language.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh contended Hindi is ‘Raj Bhasha’ (official language) and not ‘Rashtra Bhasha‘ (national language), as Rajnath Singh had noted in Parliament when he was the home minister.
“Hindi imperialism will be the death knell for India. I’m very comfortable with Hindi, but I don’t want it rammed down anybody’s throat. Amit Shah is doing a disservice to Hindi by imposing it,” Ramesh said on Twitter.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said the home minister has tried to sermonise about Hindi which he should not.
“The home minister has tried to sermonise us about Hindi. I have already answered in Hindi. I am a great supporter of Hindi, but not of imposition, not of provocative politics, not of divisive politics,” he told reporters at a press conference.