After the Union home minister and BJP front man Amit Shah opened a can of worms with his speech on Hindi Day/HindiDiwas asking everyone to use Hindi as their native language, twitterati left no stone unturned to protest or rather troll the situation.

“India has many languages and every language has its importance. But it is absolutely necessary that the entire country should have one language that becomes India’s identity globally,” Shah tweeted. “I want to appeal to people to promote their native languages but also use Hindi to make the dream of Bapu (Mahatma Gandhi) and Sardar (Vallabhbhai) Patel of one language come true,” he added.

Shah also added while diversity in languages is the strength of India, a national language is required so that foreign languages and cultures do not overpower the country’s own. Indians should make efforts to expand Hindi language to different parts of the country, he added.

According to the Official Languages Act, 1963, Hindi and English are the official languages for the Union government and Parliament. Shah believes that a single language will help unite the country. Well, it’s noteworthy that all his efforts didn’t go waste as the entire country did unite, not to promote Hindi, but to oppose his statement.

Hashtags such as #HindiImpostion #StopHindiImposition #LingusticEquality and #HindiImperialism has been trending since Hindi Diwas, observed on September 15. Here are a few:

Don’t “quack quack” us!
Also, you’re amazing @ShashiTharoor ❤#HindiImpostion https://t.co/sn9ajAnQDJ

— Janani arun (@Janani_a_run5) September 17, 2019

After #HindiImpostion debate, time has come to ask for jobs from the govt.
Government wants us to indulge in nonsense. pic.twitter.com/2exGCMgtvN

— Vishwas Dass (@VishwasDass) September 17, 2019

🇮🇳Oriya 🇮🇳 Marathi
🇮🇳 Kannada 🇮🇳Hindi 🇮🇳Tamil
🇮🇳English 🇮🇳Gujarati
🇮🇳Bengali 🇮🇳Urdu 🇮🇳Punjabi 🇮🇳 Konkani 🇮🇳Malayalam
🇮🇳Telugu 🇮🇳Assamese
🇮🇳Bodo 🇮🇳Dogri 🇮🇳Maithili 🇮🇳Nepali 🇮🇳Sanskrit
🇮🇳Kashmiri 🇮🇳Sindhi
🇮🇳Santhali 🇮🇳Manipuri…

India’s many languages are not her weakness.

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 16, 2019

Hindi is the mother tongue of 42% of the population. If it’s going to be forced down the throat of 58% of the population, it will be resisted. What about regional languages? Will they be throttled? #HindiImpostion

— JustSaying (@itgotworse) September 15, 2019

All official languages in our country are equal. However, as far as Karnataka is concerned, #Kannada is the principal language. We will never compromise its importance and are committed to promote Kannada and our state’s culture.

— CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) September 16, 2019

The claim that Hindi unifies our country is absurd. That language is not the mother tongue of a majority of Indians. The move to inflict Hindi upon them amounts to enslaving them. Union Minister’s statement is a war cry against the mother tongues of non-hindi speaking people.

— Pinarayi Vijayan (@vijayanpinarayi) September 15, 2019

Even in north, Hindi was not a mother tongue except among some urbanites. Hindi was imposed ignoring the dialects namely Haryanvi, Mythili, Awadhi, bhojpuri, etc. But, this imposition can’t be tested on full fledged languages namely Tamil, Kannada or Bengali. #Hindiimposition

— Mohan Katarki (@mohankatarki) September 15, 2019

The Federal cartoon https://t.co/6GPKsf9GKd #HindiImposition #Indian pic.twitter.com/wIjrttN2WY

— Nala Ponnappa (@PonnappaCartoon) September 16, 2019

Now you are constrained to prove to us that India will continue to be a free country.

You must consult the people before you make a new law or a new scheme. pic.twitter.com/u0De38bzk0

— Kamal Haasan (@ikamalhaasan) September 16, 2019

Speaking about the backlash, Shah retorted saying he never asked to impose the language. He told ANI, “I never asked for imposing Hindi over other regional languages and had only requested for learning Hindi as the second language after one’s mother tongue. I myself come from a non-Hindi state of Gujarat. If some people want to do politics, its their choice.”

मैंने हमेशा कहा है कि भारतीय भाषाओं को मजबूत करना चाहिए।

बच्चा तभी अच्छा पढ़ सकता है जब वो अपनी मातृभाषा में पढ़ेगा, मातृभाषा से मेरा मतलब हिंदी नहीं राज्य की भाषा से है।

देश के अंदर एक ऐसी भाषा होनी चाहिए कि अगर आप कोई दूसरी भाषा सीखते हो तो वो हिंदी हो: श्री अमित शाह pic.twitter.com/k4zxcu7Iki

— BJP (@BJP4India) September 18, 2019