Amit Shah
Amit ShahReuters

On the occasion of Hindi Diwas, Union Home Minister Amit Shah openly campaigned for 'one nation, one language' agenda, saying that Hindi is the only language that can unite India.

In a tweet on Saturday morning, the home minister wrote, "There are several languages in India and they have their own value, but it is important for the nation to have one language that it is identified by in the world. If there is one language that can unite the country, it's Hindi."

Amit Shah urged everyone to speak in the mother tongue as well as Hindi and contribute in making Mahatma Gandhi's and Sardar Patel dreams of 'one nation, one language' agenda come true.

He tweeted, "Today, on the occasion of Hindi Day, I appeal to all the citizens of the country that we should increase the use of our mother tongue and also use Hindi language, realizing the dream of Bapu and iron man Sardar Patel of one language of the country." He ended the tweet wishing everyone a Happy Hindi Diwas.

Southern states have been at the centre of resisting the imposition of the language on non-Hindi speaking states. In May, the Centre introduced a three language a policy in schools to teach Hindi and English as well as the mother tongue.

Many southern states met this new rule with resistance.

Similarly, Shah's most recent comments on Hindi received a lot of flak from people belonging to the Southern part of India. Hashtags such as #StopHindiImposition #StopHindiImperialism began trending on Twitter with many linking Shah to the Chinese government for trying to destroy other languages and cultures.

One user wrote, "Sorry, we have way more older languages and diversity. Please stop trying to emulate China and trying to destroy other languages and culturesin the name of homogeneity. We are proud of the diversity in every aspect of this nation. #hindiisnotnationallanguage"

Another user wrote, "As long as Tamilnadu is part of India, #HindiDiwas #Hindi shall never be on language. I used G.Translate to understand your tweet. #Tamil"

Here are some of the replies Shah's tweet.