Hindi is not India's national language, will never let it happen: Congress leader Siddaramaiah

Asserting that Hindi is not Indias national language former Karnataka chief minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Friday accused the ruling BJP of trying to unleash its agenda of cultural terrorism against nonHindi speaking statesTaking offence to Union Home Minister Amit Shahs comment regarding the official language the Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka assembly accused him of betraying the formers home state Gujarat and mothertongue Gujarati for Hindi for his political agendaShah on Thursday said Hindi should be accepted as an alternative to English and not to local languagesPresiding over the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee Shah had said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided that the medium of running the government is the official language and this will definitely increase the importance of HindiAs a Kannadiga I take strong offence to HMOIndia AmitShahs comment on Official language amp medium of communication Hindi is not our National Language amp we will never let it to be Siddaramaiah tweeted with the tagline IndiaAgainstHindiImpositionStating that linguistic diversity is the essence of our country and we will respect each others sentiments the former chief minister said pluralism is what has held our nation together and any attempt by the BJP to undo this will be met with strong opposition and retaliationImposing Hindi is a sign of coercive federalism rather than cooperative federalism Myopic view of BJP regarding our languages needs to be corrected and their opinions are derived from pseudonationalists like Savarkar Siddaramaiah addedPointing out that 70 per cent of the agenda of the Cabinet is prepared in Hindi Shah at the committee meeting had said the time has now come to make the official language Hindi an important part of the unity of the countryHe however had said Hindi should be accepted as an alternative to English and not to local languagesAlleging that BJP is trying to unleash its agenda of cultural terrorism against nonHindi speaking states Siddaramaiah said the efforts of poets authors actors and icons of Karnataka Ekikarana unification movement and others in strengthening the state shall be protected foreverIt is time for the BJP to understand that more linguistic and cultural autonomy should be given to states All AllIndia exams have to be held in regional languages NEP has to be reworked to avoid Hindi imposition and all major state languages should be official languages he saidIt is disgraceful on the part of Amit Shah to betray his mother state Gujarat and mothertongue Gujarati for Hindi for his political agenda I wonder how a person who betrays his motherland can ever work in the interest of India he said adding that Shahs roots are from where Mahatma Gandhi was born but behaving like SavarkarFurther noting that history clearly suggests that any attempt to impose Hindi in other states have not gone well Siddaramaiah said We take pride in Kannada identity and we believe that Karnataka as our poet laureate Kuvempu said is the daughter of BharataThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever