A day after DMK working president MK Stalin slammed the Centre for ‘Hindi imposition’ in a video, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu today refuted the accusation by saying, there was no question of thrusting the language on anyone. “No question of imposing Hindi on anyone, learning Hindi is useful. People playing politics”, he said. Yesterday, Stalin had hit out at the Narendra Modi government in a video uploaded on his Twitter account. The DMK working president accused the government of violating the Constitution and rights of non-Hindi speaking citizens of the country. He said that the NDA Government was “attempting to destroy and decimate the unity of the nation”, according to the Indian Express.

He also alleged that the BJP-led government obtained permission from the President for use of Hindi in airport announcements, press news and advertisements and it has also made Hindi a compulsory subject for CBSE schools across the country.

He further said that all schemes of the Centre are titled only either in Hindi or Sanskrit and then translated to other languages. Stalin also pointed out that recently, even the milestones on the National Highways were re-lettered in Hindi, after removing the earlier signage in English.

“By forcing Hindi onto its citizens – from Primary school students to Parliament, the BJP government is betraying all non-Hindi speaking residents of the country including future generations,” he said.

“As per schedule 8 of the Constitution, all languages including Tamil should be announced as official languages,” he also said.

Meanwhile, speaking to reporters earlier today on the issue of Tamil Nadu farmers who have camped in the national capital to voice their concerns, Venkaiah Nadu said that although they have met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Home Minister Rajnath Singh, the problems faced by them have to be dealt by the state government.