Adding on to a recent statement made in the Rajya Sabha by Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) member John Brittas against the imposition of Hindi by the Centre, actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan on Sunday said that he was speaking for “half of India”.
Hasaan on his Twitter account, reacting to Brittas’s video, retweeted in Tamil saying, “Kerala is also reflecting the same, and it is speaking for half of India.”
He further added, “Warning: Pongal (Tamil New Year) is coming. Oh! Sorry, ‘Jaagte Raho’ for your understanding.”
Brittas questioned tweeting, “Your nefarious design of imposing Hindi will ruin this country. Could Sundar Pichai have been at the helm of Google if IIT had to take the exam in Hindi?”
It started in October, when the parliamentary committee on official languages suggested that the IITs located in Hindi-speaking states introduce Hindi as a medium of instruction.
“Mother tongue is our birthright. Learning and using other languages is based on personal choice. This has been the right of South India for 75 years,” Kamal Haasan said in a second tweet in the thread.
Haasan also joined Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra ¬ast week in Delhi on Saturday. He was reportedly accompanied by party functionaries of the MNM and walked alongside Rahul to the Red Fort.
Hasaan remarked that Hindi’s upliftment should not happen at the expense of other regional languages of the country tweeting “To develop Hindi, it is unwise to impose it on others. The imposition will be opposed.”
Brittas in the Rajya sabha last week had accused the Parliamentary committee on official languages of violating section 4(iii) of the Official Language Act.
He described that the section of the official language act specifies the remit of the committee to review the progress in the use of Hindi for the official purpose of the Union and make recommendations thereof.
The CPM member stressed, “It is beyond the ambit of the Act to deliberate on the medium of instruction in educational institutions and in fact the official language committee has gone beyond its brief; thereby recommending that the higher education institutes have to adopt Hindi as a medium of language.”
Brittas also pointed to Narendra Modi in RS saying, “I am glad that the Honourable Prime Minister is listening to me, Sir. There is a pernicious and sinister design and overt and covert attempts, perhaps stronger than ever, to elevate Hindi as the sole national language of the country.”
Brittas, citing on student struggles questioned, “Sir, there are thousands of students from north India who study in south India, like Bangalore, Chennai, Mangalore, Kerala. Do you expect the students of north India to learn their syllabus in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada? If they force that, most of your students would have to come back,” Brittas added.
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