Kerala politicians slam Amit Shah’s Hindi push

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 15 (IANS) The traditional rival political fronts in Kerala - the ruling CPI-M led Left Front and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) are on the same page in slamming the Union Home Minister Amit Shah's call for one nation, one language.

Shah on Saturday had tweeted that a common language would become "the mark of India's global identity".

Taking on Shah was Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who tweeted on Sunday that no Indian should feel alienated because of language.

"India's strength is its ability to embrace diversity. Sangh Parivar must relinquish divisive policies. They must realize that people can see through the ploy, that this is an attempt to divert attention from the real problems," tweeted Vijayan and went on to point out, "the claim that Hindi unifies our country is absurd. That language is not the mother tongue of a majority of Indians. The move to inflict Hindi upon them amounts to enslaving them. Union Minister's statement is a war cry against the mother tongues of non-hindi speaking people," added Vijayan.

Joining Vijayan was Leader of opposition and senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala who said this new thought will only help divide people and that's the principle agenda of the Sangh parivar.

"The thumb rule in our country has been all the languages have the same status and Hindi has no special status at all. Shah wants to overrule all this and wants to go ahead with the secret agenda of dividing the people. The economy of our country is in doldrums and all this new love for Hindi is to divert attention from the real burning issues facing the country," said Chennithala.