TVK slams Shah’s Hindi Diwas message: ‘giving primacy to one language authoritarian’

Actor Vijay’s party, TVK, has hit out at Union Home Minister Amit Shah over his remarks on Hindi Diwas, stating that they are "against the country’s linguistic diversity and federal structure".

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What Shah said

In a statement, TVK leader and propaganda secretary Dr KG Arunraj said the Union government must put an end to its attempts to impose Hindi, which goes against the principle of federalism.

TVK also criticised Shah’s post on X, in which he wrote, "Hindi, serving as a bridge among the country’s languages and dialects, is promoting national unity and is becoming the language of technology, science, and research. From the freedom struggle to the difficult days of the Emergency, Hindi has played a crucial role in binding the citizens of the country together. Hindi will continue to play an important role in building a developed and linguistically self-reliant India by taking all languages along."

Commenting on the Union minister's post, Arunraj said in a nation where states are divided linguistically and where there are 22 official languages in administration, giving primacy to a single language amounts to an authoritarian approach.

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'Attempts to compress India's diversity'

Arunraj alleged that the Centre's goal is to make Hindi the backbone of administration, and it is a move that “must be strongly condemned. He said that ever since the BJP came to power, it has attempted to compress India’s diversity into uniformity with slogans such as One Nation, One Ration and One Nation, One Election.

"Now, in this sequence, they are trying to impose One Nation, One Language through Hindi. The BJP government at the Centre, through the National Education Policy, introduced the three-language formula as a backdoor method to impose Hindi," the party alleged.

TVK maintained that while anyone is free to learn any language of their choice, enforcing a language by compulsion is unacceptable. Stating that the two-language policy of Tamil Nadu is the policy of TVK as well, the party said the same has been passed as a resolution in its general council and executive committee.

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'Violation of federalism'

“Though the BJP government at the Centre has repeatedly failed in imposing Hindi, it continues with its efforts. When there are 22 official languages in the Union government’s administration, the attempt to make only Hindi the backbone of technology, science, justice, education, and administration is an authoritarian trend,” said the statement issued by Arunraj.

Reiterating that the Union government must embrace people of all religions, languages, and states to ensure the holistic development of all regions, TVK said that dividing states into Hindi-speaking and non-Hindi-speaking, or privileging only one language, is against the principles of federalism.