Kamal Haasan: No Shah, Sultan or Samrat must renege on promise

Kamal Haasan

Chennai: Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) founder Kamal Haasan on Monday opposed any attempts to "impose" Hindi saying unity in diversity was a promise made to the country decades back which "no Shah, Sultan or Samrat must renege on." "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," he said in a video.

The "No Shah or Sultan or Samrat" remarks was an obvious reference to Union Home Minister Amit Shah's pitch for Hindi as the nation's common language, which drew sharp responses from many opposition leaders including DMK President MK Stalin and former Karnataka chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramiah. The DMK on Monday announced demonstrations across Tamil Nadu on September 20 against Shah's pitch for Hindi.

Also Read: Amit Shah's call for Hindi as national language draws flak

Haasan, referring to the 2017 pro-jallikattu protests here, said, "it was just a protest, the battle for our language will be exponentially bigger than that. India or Tamil Nadu "does not need or deserve such a battle."

"India is an excellent feast. Let us consume it together. If one thinks of shoving (food-Hindi in this context), it would lead to nausea please don't do that," Haasan said in the Tamil version of the video.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever