Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent pitch for Hindi as a common language for India has sparked a controversy with opposition parties calling it a move that will undermine the regional language. Last week, the home minister said that India has many languages and every language has its importance. “But it is absolutely necessary that the entire country should have one language that becomes India’s identity globally.”

The statement did not go down well with many regional leaders such as TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, DMK President Stalin and Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) founder Kamal Haasan who opposed the move saying they respect Hindi but it should not be imposed on the people of Tamil Nadu.

Today, Kiren Rijiju shared an old video in which former finance minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram is heard batting for developing Hindi as a common language for India. “Congress Party’s stand on “Hindi” language. Now tell your allies as well,” Rijiju said while sharing the video dated September 14, 2010 on Twitter.

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Reacting to Shah’s proposal, DMK President MK Stalin said that this was against national integrity. “They (BJP leaders) are continuously imposing Hindi and we are opposing it all along…thrusting of Hindi is being carried on in an autocratic fashion (by the Centre) despite such opposition,” he added.

Kamal Haasan too slammed Amit Shah for his Hindi comment and said: “The unity in diversity is a promise that we made when we made India into a Republic. Now, no Shah, Sultan or Samrat must renege on that promise. We respect all languages, but our mother language will always be Tamil.”

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee too made a somewhat similar statement and batted for mother-language. In a tweet, she said: “My best wishes to all on #HindiDiwas. We should respect all languages and cultures equally. We may learn many languages but we should never forget our mother-language.”