Follow TNM's WhatsApp channel for news updates and story links.
Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan and Minister Nara Lokesh have both once again professed their support for the Union government’s proposed policy to teach Hindi language in schools across India. The comments from the coalition partners of the BJP in Andhra Pradesh have come amid a fresh wave of the language row in Maharashtra.
There has been ongoing opposition to adopting the Union government’s National Education Policy (NEP) in states such as Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, with the three-language policy being one of the main points of contention. In April 2025, the Maharashtra government made Hindi a mandatory third language in government schools from classes 1 to 5.
Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan recently spoke at the golden jubilee celebrations of the Department of Official Language in Hyderabad on Friday, July 11, and said that opposing Hindi mounts to impeding development of future generations.
In an interview with India Today which is yet to be aired on July 19, Lokesh, who is the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) general secretary and son of Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, also echoed these views. He incorrectly referred to Hindi as the national language of India, doubling down even as the interviewer tried to point out that he was wrong.
“Hindi is our national language and we should take it forward. Why are we pitting Tamil and Telugu against Hindi?” Lokesh asked.
When asked if Hindi should be promoted as a link language for communication between speakers of different languages in India, he replied, “Absolutely.”
“English already is the link language… But at the same time, there’s nothing wrong with our kids learning Hindi. Why are we so scared about it? We should learn more languages. Mr Naidu has been saying our kids should learn even Japanese and German because there are opportunities out there,” Lokesh said.
Pawan Kalyan too reiterated his support for Hindi language and said, “Hindi should be neither imposed, nor opposed. Learning Hindi doesn’t mean we lose our identity, it is to strengthen it.”
He too incorrectly referred to Hindi as the ‘rashtra bhasha’ or national language, while speaking at the event of the Department Of ‘Raj Bhasha’ or Official Language.
“We have our mother tongue to speak at home, but once we leave the confines of home, Hindi is our ‘raj bhasha’... For national unity, we are looking for a national language, which is Hindi. I welcome Hindi as the ‘rashtra bhasha’,” Pawan Kalyan said.
He also said that while the mother tongue is the language of our amma (mother), Hindi is the language of our ‘peddamma’ (mother’s elder sister).
“The walls of languages and dialects are being broken for education, health, business and livelihood. To oppose Hindi is to limit the development of future generations,” Pawan Kalyan said.
The Jana Sena chief, who was previously aligned with the Left parties during the 2019 Andhra Pradesh elections, has often been criticised for the shift in his stance over the language row over the years.
In April 2017, Pawan Kalyan had tweeted an Andhra Jyothy article titled ‘Hindi Go Back’ which argues that while promoting Hindi wasn’t a problem, it shouldn’t come at the cost of regional identity and language. “North Indian political leadership should understand and respect the cultural diversity of our Country,” Pawan Kalyan had said back then.
However, since his party formed an alliance with the BJP, the Deputy CM has been vocal about promoting Hindi across India. Earlier in March, criticising Tamil Nadu’s resistance to Hindi imposition, Pawan Kalyan had said, “If you don’t want Hindi, don’t dub your movies in Hindi. You want money from Hindi speakers, from states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Chattisgarh. But you don’t want Hindi? How is that fair?”
Lokesh supported the NEP in the recent interview, saying, “The NEP policy is actually good, we are in the process of implementing it.”
Both leaders are being criticised on social media for their views on the language row.
