BJP leader C T Ravi on Thursday said there is nothing wrong in encouraging Hindi and regional languages instead of English and claimed that the Narendra Modi-led government has been promoting mother tongues in different parts of the country.
The party's national general secretary, who is from Karnataka and is in charge of the BJP's affairs in Tamil Nadu, refuted criticism from opposition leaders Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin that the Centre was imposing Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states.
He said people should come out of this "colonial mindset" and linked such a mentality to the use of English.
"There is nothing wrong in getting rid of this mindset and behaving like free individuals," Mr Ravi added.
Mr Vijayan had recently taken exception to the recommendations of a parliamentary panel which suggested that the medium of instruction in central technical and non-technical higher education institutes such as IITs in Hindi-speaking states should be Hindi and in the respective local languages elsewhere.
It further said the use of English should be made optional.
The Kerala chief minister had sought Prime Minister Modi's intervention in the matter.
Mr Ravi said the recommendations promote Hindi in place of English but not in the place of regional languages such as Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada or Marathi.
If a leader writes for the "pride of Malayalam or the pride of Tamil", our party welcomes it but if he writes in favour of English, then this is not appropriate, he said.
The BJP leader said leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, too, supported the promotion of Hindi and regional languages.
He also noted that the National Education Policy 2020 finalised by the Centre envisages promotion of Hindi and all other Indian languages.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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