Omar Abdullah joins debate over India's national language

|HT|

National Conference (NC) leader Omar Abdullah on Thursday joined the debate over India's national language and said it is "too diverse a country to have a national language". He added that "the idea of India is that it gives space to everybody". "If the Indian currency note gives space to all languages, then it's understood that we're more than just one language, culture and religion," Abdullah also said, reacting to the developments. A Twitter banter broke out between Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn and Kannada star Kichcha Sudeepa over the use of the Hindi language as the national language. In a recent media interaction, Sudeepa while talking about KGF: Chapter 2, had stated that "Hindi is no more a national language". This prompted Devgn to react who responded on Twitter by saying, "Hindi was, is and always will be our mother tongue and national language. Jan Gan Man." The debate took a political turn on Thursday with former Karnataka chief ministers Siddaramaiah and HD Kumaraswamy insisting that Hindi is like any other language in India and not the national language.

"Hindi was never & will never be our National Language. It is the duty of every Indian to respect linguistic diversity of our country. Each language has its own rich history for its people to be proud of. I am proud to be a Kannadiga!!" Congress stalwart Siddaramaiah tweeted.

The JD(S) second-in-command Kumaraswamy too aired a view similar to Siddaramaiah and backed Sudeep.

"Actor @KicchaSudeep saying that Hindi is not a National Language is correct. There is nothing to find fault in his statement. Actor @ajaydevgn is not only hyper in nature but also shows his ludicrous behaviour," he tweeted. Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj S Bommai also came out in support of the south Indian actor.

"Our states were formed because of languages. Regional languages have been given importance. Sudeep's statement is right and everyone should respect that," he said.

The NC leader also spoke about the recent communal clashes in Delhi which broke out between two communities during a Hanuman Jayanti procession in the Jahangirpuri area on April 16. The clashes left eight police personnel and a resident injured. According to the police, there was stone pelting and arson during the clashes, while some vehicles were also torched. The tension intensified after bulldozers tore down several concrete and temporary structures close to a mosque on April 19.

"How do you think we feel when houses of Muslims are demolished by bulldozers and TV anchors say 'there will be a shortage of bulldozers soon, we will have to import more of them?'... People who we expect to be impartial, take a partial position" . He then underlined that "religious freedom is one of the hallmarks of a democracy" and the principle should reflect in the deeds of a country. "India is a large democracy but democracy cannot only be in words but it must be in deeds also. This move to control the atmosphere of intolerance does not bode well for this country," the leader said.

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