President Ram Nath Kovind in an event on the occasion of Hindi Divas asked Hindi-speaking people to give space to regional languages and their speakers. But Congress MP Satyavrat Chaturvedi expressed his dissatisfaction as an official did not mention the efforts of a Parliamentary panel for the growth of Hindi.
"Mr secretary, you have thanked everyone but the MPs belonging to the parliamentary committee on official language. We have visited the whole country and did our best for the growth and expansion of Hindi. But you just chose to ignore us," said Chaturvedi after the vote of thanks by Prabhas Kumar Jha, secretary, department of official language. Around 1,000 people attended the even held at the Vigyan Bhavan.
Addressing a function on the occasion of Hindi Divas, Kovind said that Hindi continued to face opposition in some parts of the country even though it became an official language decades ago.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who was also present, said in his address that Hindi could be enriched further if its speakers used words from other languages as well.
Kovind suggested that those who speak Hindi should greet a Tamilian with a 'vanakkam', a Sikh with 'Sat Sri Akal' and a Muslim with an 'Adaab' — words of greeting in Tamil, among Sikhs and in Urdu respectively. They should use the word 'Garu' (sir) while addressing a Telugu-speaking person, he said.
The home minister said Hindi was the unifying language for the country and had helped bring people of different regions together during India's freedom struggle.
"We (Hindi-speaking people) should accept and use popular words of regional languages. If we do that, it will enrich the language," he said.
