HYDERABD – TRS Working President and Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao (KTR) on Saturday flayed Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s call to make Hindi the alternative to English and described it as ‘language chauvinism’.

“Unity in diversity is our strength dear @AmitShah Ji. India is a union of states & a true ‘Vasudhaika Kutumbam’. Why don’t we let people of our great nation decide what to eat, what to wear, who to pray to, and what language to speak! Language chauvinism/hegemony will boomerang,” he tweeted.

“I am an Indian first, a proud Telugu & Telanganaite next Can speak in my mother tongue Telugu, English, Hindi & a little bit of Urdu too To impose Hindi & diss English will be a great disservice to the youngsters of this nation who have global aspirations #stopHindiImposition ” KTR said in a series of tweets.

Presiding over the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee, Amit Shah said “unless we make Hindi flexible by accepting words from other local languages, it will not be propagated”.

The Home Minister told members that now, 70 percent of the agenda of the Cabinet is prepared in Hindi and over 22,000 Hindi teachers have been recruited in the eight states of the northeast.

The Congress on Friday also accused the Home Minister of trying to impose Hindi and said in doing so he is doing a disservice to the language.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said Hindi is ‘Raj Bhasha’ (official language) and not ‘Rashtra Bhasha’ (national language), as Rajnath Singh had noted in Parliament when he was the home minister.

“Hindi imperialism will be the death knell for India. I’m very comfortable with Hindi, but I don’t want it rammed down anybody’s throat. Amit Shah is doing a disservice to Hindi by imposing it,” Ramesh said on Twitter.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said the home minister has tried to sermonise about Hindi which he should not.

“The home minister has tried to sermonise us about Hindi. I have already answered in Hindi. I am a great supporter of Hindi, but not of imposition, not of provocative politics, not of divisive politics,” he told reporters at a press conference.