Pinarayi Vijayan cautioned the public about the dangers of imposing Hindi and stressed the need to fight growing communalism.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan (Wikimedia Commons).
“There is a serious effort being made to bring back some of the elements we had opposed and defeated a long time ago,” said Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in his speech on Friday, 21 October, at Kottayam.
Vijayan was referring to the elements that create divisions among the people of India. He also said there is a conscious effort to divide the people of the country and to materialise that goal certain subjects are chosen.
He made the comments at the state conference of the Kerala Karshaka Sangham.
In the speech, Vijayan also levelled serious allegations against the Union government over its move to impose Hindi on non-Hindi-speaking states.
Vijayan opined that India has a diversity of practices, languages, and cultures. He also opposed the notion that the Hindi-speaking people are a majority in the country.
“If you evaluate each state, those who speak Hindi are merely a small percent in most of them. Be it Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, or Puducherry, you can witness this situation in all these states. These are all part of our nation. They combine to make our nation,” stated Vijayan.
He opined that there should not have been any dispute over language, and alleged that the Central government was responsible for creating such disputes.
“The Union government is getting ready to start this unnecessary dispute, due to which Hindi is imposed in a particular way. Nobody is against Hindi. You all know that in Kerala when it comes to linguistic studies, Hindi is given its due importance, which is necessary, and it will continue. But if Hindi is imposed, it should not be entertained in any manner,” he said.
Vijayan also stated that it is a wrong stance taken by the Union government “without understanding the facts about the nation”.
He also requested the Union government to correct its position on Hindi as otherwise it would further divide the country’s people.
Vijayan also spoke about the growing communalism in the country. He said that utmost care should be taken when it comes to communalism.
“Those who act against the general stance of the nation — most importantly, the communal forces — should be isolated. Communalism causes a lot of danger. It divides large sections of our people,” he said.
He also reminded the people that only when strong decisions were taken against communalism could secularism be protected in the country. He also said this should be the duty of everyone living in India.
In September, the Official Language Committee headed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah submitted the 11th Volume of its report to President Droupadi Murmu.
Although the report is not available in the public domain, it is widely reported that it recommends Hindi to be used in the Central government’s higher-education institutions like the IITs, IIMs, and AIIMSes.
On 11 October, Pinarayi Vijayan wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking intervention over the recommendation of the Parliamentary panel.
“The essence of India is defined by the concept of ‘unity in diversity’, which acknowledges cultural and linguistic diversity. Promoting any one language above others would destroy integrity,” Vijayan wrote in his letter.
He also urged Modi to take “corrective steps” in the matter at the earliest.
On Tuesday, the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a resolution against “Hindi imposition” by the Centre.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said on the occasion, “They [Central government] claim they love regional languages, but their heart beats for Hindi. The panel, in the name of promoting Hindi in Hindi-speaking states, is trying to impose the language in other states.”
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