NEW DELHI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that Hindi was a “friend to all Indian languages”, adding that there should be “no opposition” to any foreign tongues. This comes as several political parties have criticised the Centre over three-language policy, accusing it of Hindi imposition.“I sincerely believe that Hindi can’t be opposed (‘virodhi’) to any Indian language. Hindi is a friend (‘sakhi’) of all Indian languages,” Amit Shah said. Shah was addressing the golden jubilee celebrations of the central government’s official language department.“There is no opposition to any language. There should not be any opposition to any foreign language. But there should be an urge to glorify one’s own language, there should be an urge to speak one’s own language, there should be an urge to think in one’s own language,” he added.Shah also remarked that for the nation, language goes beyond being a tool for communication — it embodies the very soul of the country.“It is important to keep Indian languages alive and enrich them. We should make all efforts in the coming days for all Indian languages, especially for the official language,” he said.Row over language erupted after Tamil Nadu government opposed the Centre’s three-language formula under the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 with CM MK Stalin calling it “Hindi colonialism”.Recently, a political standoff emerged in Maharashtra over the Mahayuti government’s decision to make Hindi the third compulsory language under NEP. While the BJP defended the move as a step toward national linguistic unity, opposition parties, led by Uddhav Thackeray’s Sena (UBT), accused the government of attempting to “Hindi-fy” the state.
