1 week Ago By Express News Service
CHENNAI: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stating that giving special place to Hindi and celebrating the language in non-Hindi speaking states is seen as attempts to belittle other languages in a multilingual country like India. He wrote the letter objecting to the Hindi month celebrations organised in Chennai on Friday along with the golden jubilee celebrations of Chennai Doordarshan, which was presided over by Governor RN Ravi. Stalin pointed out that the Constitution of India did not accord national language status to any language.
“Hindi and English are used only for official purposes such as legislation, judiciary and communication between the union and state governments, “ he added. The chief minister suggested that holding such Hindi language oriented events could be avoided in non-Hindi speaking states. “If the union government still desires to hold such events, I suggest that celebration of the local language month in respective states must also be done with equal warmth,” Stalin said He further added that the union government can hold special events to celebrate the richness of all classical languages that it has recognised in the respective states.
“This could enhance the cordial relationship among all,” Stalin said. Other parties, including AIADMK, also opposed the Hindi Month celebrations organised on Friday. AIADMK general secretary and Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami said it is not acceptable that the union government, in a manner of imposing Hindi, is organising such functions in non-Hindi speaking states.
PMK and AMMK, which are in alliance with the BJP, also strongly objected to the celebrations. PMK founder S Ramadoss said the celebration was a blatant attempt to impose Hindi. India is a country where 122 languages are spoken by a substantial number of people and there are 1,599 other languages, Ramadoss said, adding that there was no justification to celebrate only one language.
“Celebrating Hindi alone will affect the plurality of the nation. The central government should not be a reason for that,” he said. Ramadoss added that irrespective of whether Congress or BJP is ruling at the centre, there was no difference regarding imposition of Hindi.
AMMK general secretary TTV Dhinakaran said that the celebrations are not acceptable since the central government did not accord similar importance to other languages. Earlier, members of DMK’s students wing, led by its secretary CVMP Ezhilarasan, staged demonstration near the Doordarshan office, demanding that the function be cancelled. “The celebration of Hindi Month in Tamil Nadu is an affront to linguistic sentiments of Tamil people, and we strongly urge Doordarshan to cancel the event,” he said.
Protestors raised slogans condemning the alleged imposition of Hindi by the union government. They were detained by the police..
