Singer Sonu Nigam joins ‘National language’ row

CHENNAI: Started with Bollywood star Ajay Devgn’s response to the Kannada star Kiccha Sudeep’s statement over the Twitter platform, personalities from the film and political circles such as Kangana Ranaut and Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Siddaramaiah respectively have started to comment on Hindi as India's national language.

Joining this list, singer Sonu Nigam said that there was no mention of the same. “I don’t know where in the Indian constitution says Hindi is our rashtra basha (national language). As far as from my knowledge and the opinion of the scholars, there was no mention of that," said the Padmashri awardee in a response to a question by Sushant Mehta about the controversial topic ‘Hindi is our national language’.

“The order delivered by the Supreme Court is in English. Let people speak the language they want to..why are we after everybody saying ‘you have to speak this language or that language? Let it go..," he added.

He further said that Tamil is the oldest language and there is already an ongoing debate between Sanskrit and Tamil among the scholars regarding the same. “Do we have no problems in this country that we are looking for more? Look at our neighbours..and we are creating divisions in India by saying ‘you are Tamilian …you speak Hindi. Why? Why should they (Tamils) speak in Hindi?” he asked.

In a response to a question about ‘KGF: Chapter 2’ as a pan-Indian film, Sudeep’s comment on Bollywood producing films of their own erupted controversy over the past week. Though Bollywood star Ajay Devgn claimed something was lost in translation, Sudeep gave a grounded reply that it is a privilege to have a conversation with him and probably, a healthy one next time.