Won't compromise, says Yediyurappa after Amit Shah's Hindi push

Bengaluru, Sep 16: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa today said a firm "no" to party chief Amit Shah's push for having Hindi as a common language across the country that revived the decades-old debate.

"All official languages in our country are equal. However, as far as Karnataka is concerned, #Kannada is the principal language. We will never compromise its importance and are committed to promote Kannada and our state's culture," Yediyurappa said in a tweet.

Joining issue, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said in a tweet, "The claim that Hindi unifies our country is absurd".

"That language is not the mother tongue of a majority of Indians. The move to inflict Hindi upon them amounts to enslaving them. Union Minister's statement is a war cry against the mother tongues of non-hindi speaking people," his tweet read.

Actor politician Kamal Haasan had taken a swipe at Amit Shah. "Unity in diversity is a promise we made when India became a republic. Now no Shah, Sultan or Samrat should renege on that promises," he had said.

As the country marked Hindi Diwas on Saturday, Shah had tweeted suggesting a wider use of Hindi as a common language.