The story so far: On April 8, Union Home Minister Amit Shah sparked outrage when he said that people from different states communicating with each other should do so in Hindi as opposed to English. Hindi should take the place of English, he clarified, and not that of the local language.
Mr. Shah’s remarks were addressed to members at the 37th Parliamentary Official Language Committee meeting. During the meeting, he highlighted that 70% of the Union Cabinet agenda was written in Hindi and that Prime Minister Modi decided that the government would be run through the medium of Hindi.
There was backlash to these remarks in many places. On April 12, Tamil Nadu state BJP president K. Annamalai denounced the Home Minister’s remarks, saying that there was no need to “learn a language under compulsion to prove one’s Indianness.” Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK president M.K. Stalin tweeted: “A single language will not be of use for unity. A single identity will not create unity.”
