Do anything in life, but don't leave your mother tongue: Shah in Guj

VADODARA: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday emphasised on the importance of mother tongue and urged people to get out of the "inferiority complex" in using it adding that the mother tongue is a means of personality development.

The Home Minister lauded the New Education Policy and said that it incorporates the thoughts of great men like BR Ambedkar, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and others.

Shah made these remarks at the convocation ceremony of the Maharaja Sayajirao University in Vadodara.

"In the New Education Policy, it also includes the thoughts of Sayari Rao regarding accessible education, the thoughts of Sardar Patel on women empowerment, and the thoughts of BR Ambedkar regarding education for knowledge. Do anything in your life, but do not leave your mother tongue. Get out of the inferiority complex that you will not be accepted by your language. Language is an expression," Shah said.

"If any person thinks in his own language, he thinks well. If he conducts his research, the capability of his research increases manifold. There can be no bigger medium of personality building than the mother tongue. I urge all of you to come out of the inferiority complex," he added detailing the benefits of using mother tongue.

The Home Minister also cited his interactions with the people from foreign countries and said that they do not know which was the native language of their country.

"I meet people of foreign countries. When they talk in English with me, I ask them which was the language of your country. They look down a little, we do not even know which was the language of our country. We have the best literature, grammar and poems in our languages. This is why PM Modi has made mother tongue (language) compulsory under the new education policy," he said.

Shah recalled Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and said that the world remembers him today because of his selflessness.

"It is an important day. It is today when Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had entered Burma. When he entered Burma, he had said that I am stepping into a free India. It is the history of the world that it remembers only those who succeed. Netaji did not succeed, but the world respects him even today because he never did anything for himself," he said.