Tamil Nadu Congress To Show Black Flags To Amit Shah For His Hindi Pitch

The Congress in Tamil Nadu on Tuesday announced it would hold a black flag demonstration against Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his future visit to the state in protest against his Hindi pitch.

Asserting that Tamil Nadu Congress was second to none in opposing "Hindi imposition," the party accused Amit Shah of slighting the safeguards provided to non-Hindi speaking people in the Constitution and the Official Languages Act, 1963.

A special consultative meeting chaired by TNCC chief KS Alagiri, in a resolution, attacked Mr Shah for his "arrogant views," favouring Hindi as "the only official language of India."

The black flag demonstration is to condemn Amit Shah for his remarks, the resolution said.

The party said Jawaharlal Nehru had on January 6, 1958 during his Chennai visit had staunchly opposed "Hindi imposition" and had assured continuation of English alongside Hindi.

The TNCC, however, said it was not opposed to Hindi but only its imposition. "Nobody can mistake someone learning Hindi on his own interest."

The party said it opposed "sidelining" of languages other than Hindi by the Centre in matters like railways and postal department competitive examinations.

The Congress state unit also hit out at the Centre for "vendetta politics," vis-a-vis the arrests of former union minister P Chidambaram and Karnataka Congress leader DK Shivakumar, who have been arrested in money laundering cases.

AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik, secretaries Sanjay Dutt and Sirivella Prasad (the duo are in charge of Tamil Nadu) and Tamil Nadu Legislalture Party leader KR Ramasamy participated in the meeting.

The Congress' announcement comes a day after the DMK said it would hold protest demonstrations across the state on September 20 to condemn Amit Shah's Hindi pitch.

The Union minister has pitched for a common language for the country and said it is Hindi which is spoken the most and that it can unite the whole country.

His remarks had drawn sharp reactions from opposition parties, especially in Tamil Nadu where all of them including the ruling AIADMK, opposed any move to "impose" Hindi.