Minister of State for HRD Satyapal Singh kicked up a fresh row on Monday with his remark that Hindi is the only language that can unite India.
Addressing a gathering of linguists, foreign students and local politicians at the Central Hindi Institute in Delhi, he said Hindi represented the spirit of India, the 5,000-year-old Vedic culture and this language alone can unite the country.
Exhorting the need to promote the language, the former police commissioner said, “The time has come to recognise the reality and take concerted action to install Hindi at every level to restore the glory of India.,”
Singh said it was unfortunate that while countries like China, Germany and Japan did not organise national days after their languages, “we celebrate Hindi Divas”.
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Singh’s remarks did not go down well with Twitteratis who slammed the BJP leader for his comments and dubbed it as ‘the biggest blunder in the name of nationalism’.
Has forcibly imposing a language ever worked? Pakistan tried imposing Urdu in 1971. How did that experiment go? Language Trump’s religion every time! Every single time!
— Roy Sankar (@roy5ankar) December 11, 2017
India is already united & glorious. Only thing we need to do is uninstall venomous & divisive sanghis at every level to protect the unity & integrity of India. https://t.co/FDFlrb92IJ
— Santosh (@santoshetti) December 11, 2017
This guy is trying hard to break India. The more u impose Hindi, lesser is the unity among us and hence lesser the glory of India! #stopHindiImposition
— Swabhimani Kannadiga (@thisisrupak) December 11, 2017
We have elected you to solve our problems, not to impose Hindi on Non-Hindi states. Stop imposing Hindi and concentrate on other issues. If this is the case you & your party will loose ur values. Hope this will not continue further.
— Karthik (@karthiksukru) December 12, 2017
Since inception of independent republic of India GOI killed & sacrificed many north Indian langs to promote HIndi as a unified Lang for India. This is biggest blunder in the name nationlism. Even today it is a regional parasite Lang promoted by GOI #Stophindiimposition
— SRINIVAS H K (@SRINIVASHK64) December 11, 2017
These @BJP4India leaders are suffering from Hindi imposing disorder .. don’t know why these people are mad about Hindi ..and even how can they think Hindi can unite India …. There are millions of works need to be done but these are behind Hindi imposition..
— ____ _______ (@bharathbraj8) December 12, 2017
But this was not Singh’s sole controversy.
At a different event on Monday, Singh landed in troubled waters after he demanded to know how many men would want to marry a girl who wears jeans to her wedding.
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“Koi aadmi agar kehne lage ki main jeans pehenke kisi mandir ka mahant ban jaaunga to log pasand karenge kya? Koi pasand nahi karega. Ya koi ladki jeans pehenkar ke shaadi ke bedi pe jaayegi to kitne ladke usse shaadi karna chahenge (If a man says that he will wear jeans and become the ‘mahant’ of a temple, will people like it? Nobody will like it. If a girl wears jeans to her wedding ceremony, how many men will want to marry her),” ANI quoted Singh as saying.
