Home Minister P Chidambaram at the function. (PTI)
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram won the hearts of the audience when he attempted to speak in Hindi at a function organised to mark the 'Hindi Day' in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Amid a thunderous applause, Chidambaram tried to speak two-three lines of his inaugural address in broken Hindi as he encouraged the gathering at the fully-packed hall to promote the language particularly in government offices as a way of correspondence.
The 65-year-old minister, who is not used to speaking in Hindi, switched over to English in between his three-minute speech.
However, the former finance minister again preferred to wrap up his address in Hindi by congratulating the winners of the Indira Gandhi Rajbhasha Awards at the function organised by his Ministry.
Chidambaram had earlier stressed that the ministries must prepare their progress reports and statistics in Hindi which would help in its promotion.