Cong slams Shah over ‘BJP stands for promotion of all languages’ remark

PTI, May 5, 2023, 10:48 AM IST

The Congress on Friday hit out at Home Minister Amit Shah’s reported remarks that the BJP stands for promotion of all languages, alleging that the Modi government had spent Rs 640 crore to promote Sanskrit while just Rs 3 crore on promotion of Kannada.

Shah, in an interview to The Hindu, said the BJP stands for the promotion of all Indian languages and the accusation that it promotes Hindi at the cost of regional languages is “politically motivated”.

Reacting to the remarks, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said in a tweet, ”The HM has claimed in an interview that the BJP stands for ‘promotion’ of all languages…Is that why the Modi Govt has spent Rs 640 cr to promote Sanskrit and JUST Rs 3 cr to support promotion of Kannada, one of the six classical languages of the country?” Is that why the man who insulted the great Kuvempu, who penned the state anthem, was made Chairman of the textbook revision committee by ”the 40% Commission Sarkara” in Karnataka, he asked.

”Is that why a tradition has begun with the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Bill, 2022 to do away with English names for laws and replace them with Hindi names?” Ramesh said.

”I could go on and on, Mr. HM. But then you work for a man whose motto has been Asatyameva Jayate,” the Congress leader said.

Dismissing the allegation that the BJP and the Union government were trying to impose Hindi in the southern State, Shah in the interview has said the Narendra Modi government had put in systems to conduct various recruitment tests in all languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.