Move to impose Hindi cannot be accepted, says Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan

As protests rise over Union Home Minister Amit Shah's statement that Hindi should be accepted as an alternative to English and not to local languages, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday said the move to impose Hindi cannot be accepted.

Speaking at a seminar on Centre-State relations, organised by the CPI(M) as part of its 23rd Party Congress, Vijayan said India is a country known for its unity in diversity and the Sangh Parivar's agenda was not to recognise this diversity.

Presiding over the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee, Shah had on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided that the medium of running the government is the official language and this will definitely increase the importance of Hindi.

"India is a country which is known for its unity in diversity. The idea itself means accepting diversity. Our Constitution has also given importance to many languages in India. Most of the states were formed on the basis of language after a long struggle. The Sangh Parivar agenda is not to recognise diversity and federalism of our country. It's part of their agenda to weaken the regional languages," Vijayan said.

He said languages are the basis of culture and life of each society and this diversity will be destroyed if a language is killed.

"Such moves will create dangerous situations in the country. Hindi was used as part of the national movement and in that sense it is considered as a national-level language and that's why we have implemented the three-language courses in Kerala schools. However, imposing Hindi and destroying regional languages cannot be accepted. It will hamper the unity and integrity of the nation," Vijayan said.

Kerala schools have three-language courses implemented with Malayalam, Hindi and English languages.

Vijayan said recently, there was a demand for 'one nation, one language' during the celebration of Hindi Divas. "Similarly, in the draft of the New Education Policy, they tried to make Hindi a must language," Vijayan said.

Prominent southern political parties have criticised Shah's statement on Hindi. Vijayan made these statements while inaugurating the seminar in which his Tamil Nadu counterpart M K Stalin was also present.