Guwahati: Union Home Minister Amit Shah encouraged people to “not allow any single language of the country die” on Monday.
India’s first home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel celebrated his 147th birthday on the day when Shah made his comments.
Speaking at Sardar Patel School in the nation’s capital, Shah stated, “We Indians need to decide that no matter how many languages there are in this country, we will not allow a single one disappears.”
Shah clarified that he is not opposed to studying any language, saying, “Any language can be learned; I’m not against it. English, German, Russian, and French can all be learned. It has no issues at all. But keep using your native tongue.”
Noting that “we, unfortunately, combine the knowledge of English with intellectual ability in our country”, Shah said, “Language is not indicative of ability. Ability is your own, and it is expressed by any language. Don’t have an inferiority complex about language. Come out of that.”
“If you have the ability then the world will have to listen to you whether you speak in your own or any other language.”
The Minister advised people not to abandon their native languages, urged teachers to converse with students in their mother tongue, and implores young people to preserve and advance their mother tongue.
“We will have to keep alive our mother tongue and carry forward it. The responsibility of breaking the barrier of inferiority complex of language is on youth,” the Union Home Minister said.
Shah said, “If we assume that only those people who know English well can contribute to the development of the country, we connect only five per cent of the country’s population with the development of the country.”
The Minister said, “if we do not involve a child who thinks, speaks, writes and does research and development in his own language, we deprive 95 per cent of the children of the country from the development of the country”.
Most of the ideas that went into India’s new education policy, according to Shah, emphasised the need of keeping the children’s elementary education in their local language.
“Technical and medical education also should be in the regional language. Besides, research and development should also be in regional language,” Shah said citing the suggestions received for the new education policy.
The Minister stated that we must overcome our inferiority mentality regarding language in order to create the country of imagination that Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel envisioned. We must also maintain and advance our own language.
“For a long period, the country did not even do anything to remember the work of Sardar Patel,” stated Shah in reference to Sardar Patel.
The Minister at the occasion said, “It took so many years for a guy like Sardar Patel to win Bharat Ratna, and it took so many years to erect Sardar Patel memorial.”
But Sardar Patel is a person who has become eternal via his work, according to Shah. He claimed that whereas Sardar Patel was a realistic and practical leader, Mahatma Gandhi possessed idealistic and spiritual leadership, and their combined leadership had a significant positive impact on the nation.
The Minister claimed that India has reached a point where no one in the entire globe will dare criticise its border or army after 75 years of independence.