Upping the ante, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Monday decided to stage a state-wide protest in Tamil Nadu on Sept 20 against any "imposition" of Hindi.
"DMK will protest in all Tamil Nadu district headquarters on September 20 from 10 am against central government's decision on the imposition of Hindi language. This decision was taken at the party's high-level committee meeting," DMK President M K Stalin told the media after a meeting of party leaders.
Asked whether allies would be associated with the protest, he said this would be the first stage of the protest and like-minded parties would be consulted in the next stage depending on what the Centre says and does.
Earlier, Stalin had criticised Home Minister Amit Shah's call to culturally unify India with Hindi as its national language.
"After BJP came to power for the second consecutive time, there has been continuous attacks on the Tamil language. DMK has been waging its protest against Hindi imposition. Amit Shah's remarks have come as a jolt to us. Such comments pose a danger to the unity of the country," he had said on Saturday.
A controversy had erupted after Shah said that Hindi is the only language that can unite the country.
"India is a country of different languages and every language has its own importance but it is very important to have a language which should become the identity of India in the world. If one language can unite the country today, it is the widely-spoken Hindi language," Shah had tweeted.
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