Sonu Nigam has reacted to Ajay Devgn-Kichcha Sudeep’s controversial Twitter debate on the topic of whether or not Hindi is a national language. Actor Ajay Devgn stirred a debate after reacting to actor Kiccha Sudeep’s statement about Hindi no longer being ‘a national language’. Many actors and filmmakers including Manoj Bajpayee, Ram Gopal Varma, and Hansal Mehta joined the debate.

And now, National Award-winning singer Sonu Nigam has jumped into the controversy. Singer Sonu Nigam says Hindi is not the country’s national language and attempts to impose it on non-Hindi speaking citizens will only create a rift within.

At a recent event moderated by journalist Sushant Mehta, Sonu Nigam said, “Nowhere in the constitution it is written that Hindi is our national language. It might be the most spoken language, but not the national language. In fact, Tamil is the oldest language. There is a debate between Sanskrit and Tamil. But, people say Tamil is the oldest language in the entire world.”

“Do we have fewer problems in the country that we need a new one? We are creating disharmony in the country by imposing a language on others, saying you are a Tamilian, you should speak Hindi. Why would they? People should have the right to decide the language they want to speak,” Nigam added.

Perfect response to Ajay Devgn by Sonu Nigam: Let’s not divide people further in this country, where is it written that Hindi is our national language? 👏 pic.twitter.com/hC9nHbXJHy

— Sushant Mehta (@SushantNMehta) May 2, 2022

“Punjabis can speak in Punjabi, Tamilians can talk in Tamil and if they are comfortable they can talk in English. All our court judgments are given in English, what is this ‘humein Hindi bolna chahiye’ (We should speak in Hindi). To impose something like this in our country or to say, ‘We are superior, you learn our language’ but how can they? “They are not proficient in Hindi, they are more comfortable in English– which has become a part of our culture and society. Let’s not divide people further in the country, bohot jhamele already chal rahe hai (There are already a lot of issues), let’s not create another issue,” he added.

Earlier, reacting to the controversy, Kangana Ranaut had said that considering Sanskrit is older than Hindi, Sanskrit should be the national language. “If you ask me which language should be the national language, then I think it should be Sanskrit. Sanskrit is older than Kannada, Tamil, Gujarati, or Hindi. All these languages have come from Sanskrit. Then why hasn’t Sanskrit become the national language and Hindi? I don’t have an answer to this. These are the decisions taken at that time (when the Constitution was written),” she said.