Manipur Congress opposes move to make Hindi a compulsory subject in Northeast

Close on the heels of Assam’s opposition party’s objection to the move to make Hindi a compulsory subject up to Class 10 in north-eastern states, the Congress party in Manipur on Sunday strongly opposed the move and sought support and cooperation from all sections for the cause.

“Making Hindi compulsory will be a big issue for the indigenous population and their cultural, traditional and religious practices which have existed since time immemorial,” said K Meghachandra, Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (I) president while addressing the media in Imphal.

At the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee in New Delhi on Thursday, Union home minister Amit Shah said that Hindi would be made compulsory up to Class 10 in the eight north-eastern states. He described Hindi as “the language of India”.

According to reports, Shah said that 20,000 Hindi teachers have been recruited in the eight states of the northeast, adding that nine tribal communities of the northeast have converted their dialects’ scripts to Devanagari.

Calling the move unfortunate, newly-appointed Manipur Congress chief Meghachandra alleged, “The move is nothing but a way to destroy our inherited culture, tradition and religion.”