#HindiDebate: Kamal Haasan says 'battle for Tamil bigger than Jallikattu'

Haasan said, "The unity in diversity is a promise that we made when we made India into a Republic. Now, no Shah, Sultan or Samrat must renege on that promise. We respect all languages, but our mother language will always be Tamil."

Haasan went on to talk about the 2017 Jallikatu protests, warning that "the battle for our language will be exponentially bigger."

Haasan then said that most Indians happily sing the National Anthem, which is in Bengali.

"The reason is the poet who wrote it gave respect to all languages and cultures within the anthem, and hence it became our anthem," he said.

He added, "Do not make an inclusive India into an exclusive one. All will suffer due to this short-sighted folly."

To recall, on Hindi Diwas last Saturday, Shah had pushed for Hindi to be the one "unifying" language that would represent India globally.

The move came after the May National Education Policy (NEP) draft proposed a "three language" policy, making Hindi compulsory in non-Hindi speaking states.

It was later updated to make Hindi optional following protests.

Incidentally, Haasan had also criticized the NEP draft.

Apart from Haasan, Shah's comments were also criticized by many others including Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who said the push for Hindi as a national language was "a new battlefield in the name of language. Non-Hindi speaking people would be made second-class citizens."

DMK chief MK Stalin said, "This is India, not Hindia," and asked Shah to withdraw his remarks.