Congress favours Hindi, but English opens new avenues: Ashok Gehlot

Former Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Friday said Congress is in favour of Hindi but English opens new avenues in the world for everyone.

Gehlot's comments came a day after Home Minister Amit Shah's reported remarks on English.

"Congress Party, Rahul Gandhi and all of us are also in favour of Hindi but English is an international language which opens new avenues in the world for everyone," Gehlot said in a post on X.

"Home Minister Shah and many people of BJP-RSS are against English although the people of the country know that the children of most of the Union ministers are studying abroad and they confuse the people here," the Congress leader said.

During childhood, we also used to oppose English but it has become the need of the hour, so we also changed our 'approach', he said.

Today, in the era of computers, internet, Artificial Intelligence, the young generation can be completely successful in life through English, Gehlot said.

The previous Congress government in Rajasthan established about 3700 Mahatma Gandhi English medium schools to promote education in English among the poor and middle class and rural areas. Due to this decision, about 6.50 lakh students started receiving education in English, he said.

The Congress leader added, "The BJP government in the state tried to close these English medium schools but could not take such a step due to their popularity among the public.