Hyderabad: Telangana is considered as mini-India because of its true cosmopolitan nature and the language sentiments here not being as strong as in Tamil Nadu or Karnataka, but Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent statement that Hindi should be the alternative to English for communication among Indians has drawn the ire of all.
Political parties and academicians see this as an attempt to impose a particular language on India though unity in diversity is the country’s strength. They warn that this regional chauvinism will boomerang.
Some political leaders have slammed the BJP for what they call its double-standards on the language issue, and dared the party to start imposing Hindi from Gujarat.
The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) has come down heavily on the BJP for doing politics over language, saying the saffron party wants to decide not only what one should eat and wear, but also the language one should communicate in.
“Why don’t we let people of our great nation decide what to eat, what to wear, who to pray to and what language to speak,” said TRS working President K.T. Rama Rao, who warned that language chauvinism or hegemony will boomerang.
He also believes that rejecting English will be a great disservice to the youngsters of this nation who have global aspirations.
“Already our students in different states are missing the English language to be competent. While it is the wish and will of citizens to practice what they want, imposition is not right. After Amit Shah spoke, we have seen on national channels many BJP MPs toeing the line of the �one nation one language’ theory. That’s more dangerous than the agenda Amit Shah has brought. This questions the identity of states and different regional
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