Shah's Hindi unaccepted: Yediyurappa

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said a firm "no" to party chief Amit Shah's push for popularising the use of Hindi as a common language across the country, which has revived the decades-old uniformity versus diversity debate.

The southern States have traditionally resisted the exclusive use of Hindi, seeing it as a cultural imposition by north Indians. This time, the opposition Congress and the Left have also joined the fray.

"As far as Karnataka is concerned, Kannada is the principal language. We will never compromise its importance," Yediyurappa said in a tweet, reflecting the popular sentiment in the State.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was among the first to speak up against Shah's views, declaring a tweet that the claim that "Hindi unifies our country is absurd".

Senior Left leader Sitaram Yechury said it was the idea of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh -- the ideological mentor of the BJP "to impose Hindi as the national language".

Clarifying the Centre's stand, Union Minister DV Sadananda Gowda said Hindi will not "boss over" other regional languages of country. "The three-language formula is accepted by us all.

Even Prime Minister spoke on the floor of the House that all regional languages.

Tamil Nadu's principal opposition party, the DMK has decided to hold protest against Shah's views on imposing Hindi in the guise of promoting Hindi at district headquarters across the state on September 20 at 10 a.m. Rahul Gandhi slammed the move saying having many languages are not India's "weakness".

The West Bengal BJP is in a fix over Shah pitching for Hindi and is unable to openly support the statement fearing that it might dent the party's increasing mass base in Bengal.

The state BJP unit is apprehensive that the issue might snowball into a major political issue as Trinamool Congress went hammer and tongs on Shah's Hindi Divas tweet accusing the saffron party of pushing its policy of imposing Hindi, sources said.