No Shah, Sultan, Samrat should go back on promise: Kamal Hassan says Hindi imposition will lead to agitation

Actor turned politician and head of Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) Kamal Hassan said that imposition of Hindi on Tamil Nadu will lead to a battle that would be exponentially bigger than the 'Jallikattu' protest.

"The unity in diversity is the promise we made when we made India into a republic. Now no Shah, Sultan or Samrat should go back on their promise. We respect all languages but our mother language will always be Tamil," said Hassan in a short video he shared on his Twitter handle.

"Jallikattu 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," he said.

In 2017 massive protest erupted in Tamil Nadu after Supreme Court's ordered to ban Jallikattu a traditional Tamil bull-taming sport which is held during Pongal.

He said that most of the nation happily sing the national anthem because Rabindranath Tagore has given due respect to all languages and culture in the anthem.

"Most of the people happily sing their national anthem with pride and will continue to do so and the reason is the poet who wrote it gave due respect to all languages and culture within the anthem and hence it became our anthem," he said.

"Do not make an inclusive India into an exclusive one, all will suffer due to such short-sighted folly," he added in the video. The actor posted two videos on the same in Tamil and English respectively.

His statement came in the backdrop of Union Home Minister Amit Shah's call to culturally unify India with Hindi as it's national language on Saturday. It triggered a row with several opposition leaders training their guns at him asking him to reconsider his appeal as it "poses a danger to national unity".

Speaking as chief guest at a function to grace Hindi Divas, Shah said that while unity in diversity is India's defining trait, a common language is needed as a culturally unifying factor.

( With inputs from ANI )