Home Minister Amit Shah said Hindi and all regional languages must be promoted and encouraged. (File)
Home Minister Mr Amit Shah today strongly pitched for promotion and encouragement of all Indian languages and said Hindi is the sakhi (friend) of regional languages.
Addressing a function organised on the occasion of Hindi Divas, Mr Shah also appealed to the parents to communicate with their children at home in mother tongue even if they study in English medium schools.
Otherwise, the children will be cut-off from their roots, he said.
"Hindi has no conflict or contradiction with any local language. Official language Hindi is the sakhi of all local languages of India and its development can be done only by mutual cooperation of each other," he said.
Mr Shah said Hindi and all regional languages must be promoted and encouraged.
The Home Minister said gone are the days when there was hesitation in speaking Hindi, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks only in Hindi in international forums.
He said the basis of evaluation of any person should be his thoughts, actions, intelligence, diligence and loyalty while language is only a medium of expression.
"Those who say that our mother tongue and official language are a hindrance in the development of personality, I want to tell them that there can be no better medium of expression of knowledge than mother tongue," he said.
Mr Shah said India has been successful in handling the COVID-19 pandemic with minimum damage due to joint efforts of the central and state governments with the active cooperation of 130 crore population.
The Prime Minister, whenever he addressed the nation and talked with all stakeholders -- chief ministers, doctors, experts and others -- he always spoke in Hindi, which resulted in the message reaching the grassroots level, he said.
Shah said since 2014, more Members of Parliament are speaking in their own regional language in Parliament and they are being translated verbatim to English and Hindi.
This helped people's representatives to highlight the problems of their respective areas in the highest forum, he said.
The Home Minister said people should not only be atmanirbhar (self-reliant) in producing goods or doing trade but also in the field of language as well.
He said translation of the history of every state should be done in the official language so that not just one state but the entire country can read this great history.
Mr Shah suggested that just like September 14 is an occasion to reassess and review efforts to promote Hindi every year, a similar and simultaneous exercise should be undertaken to promote all local languages too.
Referring to the New Education Policy (NEP) envisaged by PM Modi, Mr Shah said it has provisions for promotion of regional and Hindi languages.