NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday expressed his disapproval of the central government's recommendation to make Hindi a compulsory medium of instruction in all technical and non-technical higher educational institutions. In his letter, the Chief Minister opined that the move to impose Hindi as a compulsory language for central government jobs is against federal principles. The CM also asked the Prime Minister to withdraw the actions on the recommendations of the parliamentary committee.

The CM pointed out that Hindi cannot be imposed as the main language of instruction in the higher centres of learning as India has many languages and a single language cannot be termed as the country's language. Noting that the youth of the country have limited job opportunities in the government sector, the CM said any attempt to put a substantial section of them at a relative disadvantage will not be in the best interest of the society.

A Parliamentary committee, headed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, recently recommended that the medium of instruction in technical and non-technical higher education institutes such as IITs in Hindi-speaking states should be Hindi and in other parts of India their respective local language. It said the use of English should be made optional.