Amit Shah asks Indians to progressively promote 'official language' Hindi

New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Sha has asked citizens of India to 'progressively' use the "official language" Hindi, The News Minute reported. On Tuesday, September 14, which is marked as 'Hindi Diwas', he tweeted that more and more members of the Parliament are using their regional languages.

However, his remarks have sparked backlash on social media, many saying this is an imposition of the language. Many strongly criticised him for terming Hindi as the "official language" on social media.

While addressing a gathering in Delhi, Shah said that Hindi was the friend of all regional languages and did not compete with any of them but complemented them. Hindi has no conflict or contradiction with any local language. The language could be developed only by mutual cooperation of people, he said.

He said that one should not hesitate to speak their language. Many freedom fighters, including Gandhiji, called for Hindi's promotion, he said. He asked if the Prime Minister could speak Hindi on an international forum, what are the citizens embarrassed about and added that the days of embarrassment in speaking Hindi were gone.

He also appealed to parents to communicate with their children in their local language at home if they are studying in English medium. Otherwise, the children will be cut off from roots, he said.

He added that the New Education Policy has provisions to promote regional and Hindi languages. At the same time, the technical education syllabus was translated into five Indian languages - Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Bangla - rolled out in 14 colleges across eight states.