Taking strong exception to a recent Union Home Ministry order directing bureaucrats to use Hindi for tweeting and posting comments in social media, DMK president M. Karunanidhi on Thursday said it would be deemed as a “first step towards relegating non-Hindi speaking people to second-class citizen status.”
“The attempt to accord priority to Hindi, instead of treating equally all languages included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, will amount to treating non-Hindi speaking people as secondary citizens,” Mr. Karunanidhi said in a statement, while reacting to a media report in this regard.
An order issued by the Union Home Ministry on May 27 made Hindi compulsory for official use in social media including Twitter, Facebook, Google and blogs by the government and its officials.
In his reaction, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said promotion of Hindi should not be seen as “undermining” other languages.
Mr. Karunanidhi said the undue haste on the language issue would not only fritter away precious time, but also divert the nation’s attention from key issues.
“This is a beginning to impose Hindi on a person against his wishes,” he said, while recalling the anti-Hindi agitations that had rocked Tamil Nadu, first in 1937-38 and again in 1965. .
Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on the newly launched official twitter handle of his Ministry: “The Home Ministry is of the view that all Indian languages are important. The Ministry is committed to promoting all languages of the country.”
