Amid the raging language war between Tamil Nadu and the Centre, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday sought to strike a conciliatory note, saying people who study in their mother tongue excel worldwide though learning Hindi and English has its own benefits.
"I am telling this very clearly to you... language is not for hating,” said the chief minister. “Hindi is the national language and the international language is English”.
While asserting that language is only a means of communication, Naidu claimed that people who study in their mother tongue excel worldwide. However, he added that it is important to learn as many languages as possible for a livelihood without forgetting the mother tongue.
The chief minister called for learning as many languages as possible and slammed 'unnecessary politics over languages'.
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Earlier, Naidu’s deputy Pawan Kalyan had waded into the controversy, saying the National Education Policy 2020 does not mandate Hindi. Taking a potshot at the M.K. Stalin government in Tamil Nadu, Kalyan said spreading "false narratives” about Hindi imposition is an attempt to mislead the public.
"If they do not wish to study Hindi, they can opt for Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, or any other Indian language," he said on Saturday.
The Tamil Nadu government has launched an intense campaign against the three-language policy proposed by the National Education Policy, alleging that it’s an attempt to impose Hindi.
The DMK government even changed the rupee logo from the state budget document, replacing it with the Tamil letter ‘Ru’, a move that drew sharp reactions from the BJP.