After much backlash, Amit Shah says 'never asked for imposing Hindi'

In the wake of backlash from various quarters over his pitch to make Hindi as a 'unifying language', Home Minister Amit Shah came out with a clarification saying he never asked for imposing Hindi over other regional languages.

According to ANI, the home minister said he never asked for imposing Hindi over other regional languages, but had only requested for learning Hindi as the second language after one’s mother tongue. “I myself come from a non-Hindi state of Gujarat. If some people want to do politics, its their choice,” he was quoted as saying.

Shah had, during the 'Hindi Divas' celebrations on Saturday, stirred a row by saying, "India is a country of different languages, and every language has its own importance. But it's important to have a language of the whole country, which should become the identity of India in the world."

The statement had attracted much criticism with politicians and celebrities saying Hindi can never be imposed as national language. Reacting to Shah's comment, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had said India's many languages are not its weakness, while P. Chidambaram had said idea that Hindi alone can unite the people of India is a dangerous trend.

Slamming Shah, actor-politician Kamal Haasan had said, "Unity in diversity is a promise we made when we made India into a republic. Now, no Shah, Sultan or Samrat should renege on that promise. We respect all languages, but our mother language will always be Tamil."