Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Sunday fiercely opposed what he called a Parliamentary panel’s “recommendation” that for specific jobs, aspirants should have learnt the Hindi language.

Stalin referred to media reportage on a report of the Parliamentary Committee on Official Languages

Writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Stalin referred to media reportage on a report of the Parliamentary Committee on Official Languages.

Stalin said, “It has been reported that the Committee, chaired by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, submitted its report to the President of India, wherein inter-alia, has recommended that Hindi should be the compulsory medium of instruction in educational institutions of the Union government such as IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and central universities and Hindi should replace English.”

It also includes a recommendation that Hindi shall be made as the medium of instruction in all technical, non-technical institutions and all the Union government institutions including Kendriya Vidyalayas.

The Chief Minister, who is also the president of the ruling DMK said that it has been recommended by the panel that, “youth would be eligible for certain jobs only if they had studied Hindi, and removal of English (is proposed) as one of the compulsory papers in recruitment exams.” Such proposals went against the federal principles of Constitution and would only harm the nation’s multi-lingual fabric, he said.

Efforts to “impose” Hindi in various ways as recommended in that report should not be taken forward and the “glorious flame of unity of India may be held high forever,” the Chief Minister requested. Stalin demanded that all languages should be accorded the status of official language of the Union government.

All the regional languages, including Tamil, should be treated equally and that is the way to ensure the principle of unity in diversity. There are 22 languages including Tamil in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. All such languages have equal rights and there are several demands that some more languages should also be included under the schedule.

“I would like to point out that the number of people speaking languages other than Hindi is numerically more than Hindi-speaking people in the Indian Union. I am sure you would appreciate that every language has its own specialty with its uniqueness and linguistic culture.”

On October 10, Stalin appealed to Modi to give up attempts to “make Hindi mandatory” and uphold the nation’s unity. “Do not force another language war by imposing Hindi,” the DMK chief had said.