After Union Home Minister Amit Shah emphasised the need to accept Hindi as an alternative to English and not to local languages, West Bengal Congress chief and MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Saturday termed it as "cultural terrorism" and refused to accept it.
"We are not ready to accept it. This is cultural terrorism," Chowdhury toldwhen asked to comment on Amit Shah's pitch for Hindi.
The Congress MP noted that very few people in the country speak Hindi and alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is propagating its agenda of "Hindi, Hindu and Hindutva."
Amit Shah on Thursday emphasized on the need to accept Hindi as an alternative to English and not to local languages. The Home Minister's remarks came when he was presiding over the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee here on the Parliament premises.
"Hindi should be accepted as an alternative to English and not to local languages," Shah said, adding, "unless we make Hindi flexible by accepting words from other local languages, it will not be propagated".
He said that now the time has come to make the official language an important part of the unity of the country. Meanwhile, Shah said when citizens of states communicate with each other, it should be an Indian language whether it is regional or state-specific.
( With inputs from ANI )
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