Shah should stop 'oppressing' non-Hindi languages, says the DMK leader

Shah should stop 'oppressing' non-Hindi languages, says the DMK leader

Shah should stop 'oppressing' non-Hindi languages, says the DMK leader

DMK leader and Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Thursday hit out at Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the latter’s remark that Hindi unites the diversity of languages in India. Udhayanidhi, who is already in the middle of a controversy over his statements on Sanatan Dharma, asked Shah to stop “oppressing” non-Hindi languages.

“I strongly condemn the statement of Union Home Minister Amit Shah claiming that Hindi is the uniting force of India and it is empowering other regional languages,” the DMK leader said in a post on X.

Udhayanidhi further noted that Hindi is spoken only in four or fives states in the country and hence the statement of Shah is “totally absurd”. 

“It is only another version of imposing Hindi under the guise of generating livelihood,” he said.

“While we are speaking Tamil here, Kerala speaks Malayalam. Where does Hindi merge with and empower us?  Amit Shah should stop oppressing non-Hindi languages by calling them just regional languages,” the DMK scion added in his post.

Earlier, In a message on the occasion of "Hindi Diwas", Shah said Hindi unites the diversity of languages in India and it has honoured different Indian as well as global languages and dialects.

The home minister also said Hindi has never competed nor will compete with any other Indian language and that a strong country will emerge only by strengthening all its languages.

"Hindi has been a democratic language. It has honoured different Indian languages and dialects as well as many global languages and adopted their vocabularies, sentences and grammar rules," Shah said.

Udhayanidhi, son of Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, had stirred up a storm after he allegedly  likened ‘Sanatan Dharma’ to coronavirus, malaria and dengue and said such things should not be opposed but eradicated.

"Few things cannot be opposed, that should be abolished only. We can't oppose Dengue, Mosquitoes, Malaria, or Corona, we have to eradicate this. That's how we have to eradicate Sanatana. Rather opposing Sanatana it should be eradicated,” he had said, eliciting sharp reaction from the ruling BJP.