No compulsion to study Hindi: CM amid Maha row

Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday dismissed concerns over the "imposition" of Hindi in the state, asserting that Marathi will continue to be compulsory.

- Shrinivas Deshpande and Faisal Malik

PUNE:

"It is wrong to say that attempts are being made to impose Hindi. Marathi will be compulsory in Maharashtra. There will be no other compulsion," Fadnavis told reporters in Pune, hours after the language advisory committee of the state's Marathi Language Department appealed to him to revoke the government's decision mandating Hindi as a third language for students from class 1 to 5.

Fadnavis said that the New Education Policy says two of the three languages to be taught to students must be Indian languages. "It is important to learn languages. The rule states that two of these three languages must be Indian. Marathi is already being made compulsory. You cannot take any other language, except Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam or Gujarati," he said.