Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Friday, 14 September, called English a ‘disease’ that the British had left behind. Speaking at a ‘Hindi Diwas’ programme at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, he said that Hindi is the “symbol of social, political, religious, and linguistic unity of the country.”
“This is a disease that the British left behind, and we should rid ourselves off this disease”, the Vice President said.
He added that Hindi was the main communication language among the freedom fighters of the country and it was spoken and understood by most of the people.
Naidu said it was not a matter of debate whether Hindi was the best among all Indian languages as there were many other languages which were older and more vibrant than Hindi.
"Sanskrit is the mother of all languages and there are many regional languages which are very vibrant," he said.
He also opined that language plays an important role in the implementation of government welfare schemes in a country and the schemes will be successful only when people get the benefits.
For this, it is important that the government works are done in people's language, he said.
"If we desire that our democracy continues to be progressive and becomes stronger, then we will have to use Hindi in the functioning of the Union government and the regional languages in the functioning of the state governments. Every state has immense contribution in Hindi getting the present status," he said.
(With inputs from PTI and Hindustan Times)
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