Never opposed Hindi as a language but only opposed making it compulsory: Pawan Kalyan

Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan says that he supports linguistic freedom and educational choice for national unity and diversity.

Jana Sena Party (JSP) president and Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan said in a post on X on Saturday that imposing a language forcibly or opposing a language blindly doesn’t help in achieving the objective of national and cultural integration of Bharat.

Mr. Pawan Kalyan claimed that he had never opposed Hindi as a language but only opposed making it compulsory.

When the National Education Policy-2020 (NEP) did not enforce Hindi, spreading false narratives about its imposition was nothing but an attempt to mislead the public, he observed.

As per the NEP, students had the flexibility to learn any two Indian languages (including their mother tongue) along with a foreign language. If they did not wish to study Hindi, they could opt for Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Assamese, Kashmiri, Odia, Bengali, Punjabi, Sindhi, Bodo, Dogri, Konkani, Maithili, Meitei, Nepali, Santali, Urdu, or any other Indian language, he said.

“The multi-language policy is designed to empower students with choice, promote national unity, and preserve India’s rich linguistic diversity. Misinterpreting it for political agendas and accusing me of changing my stance reflects a lack of understanding. The JSP firmly stands by the principle of linguistic freedom and educational choice for every Indian,” Mr. Pawan Kalyan said.