Leaders jump into Hindi debate, rally behind Sudeep

Actor Sudeep on Thursday received support from senior leaders in the state, including Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, a day after he kicked up a row on the national language following a Twitter spat with Bollywood star Ajay Devgn.

While Sudeep said Hindi is not the national language, Devgn retorted that "Hindi was, is, and will always be our mother tongue and national language".

"What Sudeep said is correct," Bommai said. "After the reorganisation of states on linguistic basis, mother tongue or regional language is important and supreme in states. All should understand and respect that," he added.

Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah said Hindi will never be the national language. "It is the duty of every Indian to respect linguistic diversity of our country. Each language has its own rich history for its people to be proud of."

As more joined the debate, Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan said the BJP government had not stated anywhere that Hindi is the national language. "We are not trying to impose Hindi... Even in the National Education Policy, we have given importance to regional languages," he told reporters.

However, more rallied behind Sudeep and slammed Devgn. JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy was harsher: "Ajay Devgn has blabbered as the mouthpiece of BJP’s Hindi nationalism of one nation, one tax, one language and one government. Just because a large population speaks Hindi, it doesn’t become a national language."

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