Following in the footsteps of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, Telangana Industry and Commerce Minister KT Rama Rao has shot off a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi against the recommendations of a Parliamentary committee making Hindi the medium of instruction in higher education institutions including IITs and ending the practice of compulsory English language question paper in the recruitment examinations. He argued that if implemented, the measure would put the country in a “backward” course.

Rao who is also working president of TRS first took to Twitter to register the state’s objections to the move, arguing it was against the federal spirit and later wrote a letter to Modi pointing out that in the highly competitive globalized world the recommendation would relegate the nation “backward.”

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“India does not have a national language and Hindi is one among the many official languages. To impose Hindi by way of mandating in IITs and central government recruitments, the NDA government is flouting the federal spirit. Indians should have a choice of language and we say No to Hindi Imposition,” Rao wrote.

He also pointed out that job announcement from Central recruiting agencies were “scarce and discriminatory” against students pursuing education in regional languages. He urged Modi to conduct the recruitment exams in regional languages.

He also pointed out that there was a huge non Hindi speaking population in India and Centre’s plan to make Hindi mandatory would lead to socio economic divisions in the country.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan have already raised their voices against the recommendation of the official language committee of the Parliament under Union minister Amit Shah. While Stalin wrote to the Centre saying that it should not force “another language war” on the states and warned that the vast non Hindi speaking population will be reduced to second class citizens in their own country by this policy Vijayan sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi into the matter. All three Southern states opposing the Centre’s policy are ruled by Non BJP parties.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah heads the Parliamentary panel that has recommended that the medium of instruction in technical and non technical higher education institutes such as IITs, central universities and Kendriya Vidyalays in Hindi speaking states should be Hindi and in other parts of India their respective local languages. The recommendations are in line with the guidelines of the new National Education Policy (NEP). It also recommended that local languages should be given preference over English in all states. The committee submitted its recommendations to the President Draupadi Murmu last month.