‘Never asked for imposing Hindi over others, only as a 2nd language’: Amit Shah

New Delhi: Facing major backlash from all over the country over his comments regarding Hindi becoming a ‘unifying language’ in India, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Wednesday that he never asked for the imposition of Hindi over other regional languages. He also added that, “If some people want to politics, it is their choice.”

This remark by Amit Shah was seen as a major threat to local languages in many states and many politicians came out against the move.

"I never asked for imposing Hindi over other regional languages and had only requested for learning Hindi as the second language after one's mother tongue. I myself come from a non-Hindi state of Gujarat. If some people want to do politics, it's their choice," Amit Shah said on Wednesday.

On Saturday, the Home Minister had tweeted, "India is a country of many different languages and each language has its own significance, but it is necessary to have a common language that becomes the mark of India's identity globally... Today, if there is one language that has the ability to string the nation together in unity, it is the Hindi language which is the most widely-spoken and understood language in India."