'Hindi must be made acceptable, not imposed'

NEW DELHI: Home minister Amit Shah on Saturday said Hindi must be made acceptable, flexible and conversational, and stressed the need to promote it by strengthening all Indian regional languages and establishing their mutual congruence.

Shah, while addressing the official language 's diamond jubilee celebrations and the 4th Akhil Bharatiya Rajbhasha Sammelan here coinciding with Hindi Diwas , said Hindi and other local languages should complement one another. "There cannot be any competition between Hindi and other Indian languages ...Hindi is a friend of all Indian languages...Hindi must be promoted not through a struggle or force but through general acceptance," he said.

Stating that only mothers can preserve Indian languages, the home minister on Friday called upon parents to speak to their children exclusively in their mother-tongue.