The BJP stands for the promotion of all Indian languages and the accusation that it promotes Hindi at the cost of regional languages is “politically motivated”, Home Minister Amit Shah has said.
In an exclusive interview with The Hindu , Mr. Shah said the party would win an absolute majority in Karnataka, where issues of regional identity have featured in a big way in the election campaign.
Dismissing the allegation that the BJP and the Union government were trying to impose Hindi, he said the Modi government had put in systems to conduct recruitment tests for all-India services in all languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
Central services exams
“... The BJP is working to strengthen all local languages. Most of the Central services exams can now be taken in local languages. Earlier, someone who has studied, say, in Kannada medium would have found it difficult to take many of these exams. NEET can be taken in several languages, so can exams for recruitment of constables, with SSC as the basic qualification...”
“So our work is to encourage local languages, including for studies for engineering and medicine. This encouragement to local languages is also a part of the New Education Policy (NEP), and interestingly, it is the Congress in Karnataka which is opposing the NEP in its manifesto, thereby also opposing studies in Kannada. How do they explain their stand?” he added.
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