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The Hindu
The Hindu
National
Special Correspondent

A needless controversy on languages, says Pratap Simha

Mysuru MP Pratap Simha has said that the twitter war over national language between two actors that drew political parties in the State and triggered a debate on the issue was a needless controversy.

He said nobody has declared Hindi as a national language nor are there any efforts to impose it or declare it as such. All the 15 languages printed on the currency notes of India are national as also all the languages with or without scripts and which are spoken in the country.

Mr. Simha, who was speaking to media persons here on Friday, said there are attempts to twist and quote BJP leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah out of context. While no language has been granted the status of national language, Hindi and English are official languages for communication. What Mr. Amit Shah said was Hindi was a link language but it was being misinterpreted to stoke a controversy, said Mr. Simha.

The MP said Hindi was used widely in most parts of the country for communicating and no efforts have been made to impose it. But attempts are made to create enmity and divide people on the basis of languages, he added. It is only in Tamil Nadu and Kerala there is widespread opposition but is widely spoken across India as a link language, Mr. Simha said.

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