Guwahati, April 10: After fresh controversy over attempts to make Hindi language compulsory in Assam and rest of the Northeast, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that there is no instruction from the Centre to make Hindi learning compulsory.

“There is no instruction from Centre to make Hindi learning compulsory. In Assam, Assamese is the mother tongue,” Sarma told media presons in Guwahati.

He added, “Assam government in consultation with Assam Sahitya Sabha and tribal sahitya prepared a language policy where a student will learn Assamese and a tribal language besides English and Hindi. Bodo Sahitya Sabha has some objections and that is why we have not announced the policy yet.”

Sarma said that there is no instruction to make Hindi as the medium of instruction. “Amit Shah said one must know Hindi even though we want students to learn English and Hindi. Shah has not said one must not stop learning Assamese and learn Hindi. He said that one must, after learning Assamese, must learn Hindi. We also want the same… by learning Hindi a student from this place will be able to apply for government and non-government jobs in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.”

He clarified that there is no letter even to make Hindi an optional language.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who is also the Chairman of the Parliamentary Official Language Committee, had on Thursday said that 22,000 Hindi teachers had been recruited in the eight states of the Northeast and all the states have agreed to make Hindi compulsory up to Class X.

Meanwhile, the president of Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), Lurinjyoti Gogoi has reacted to it and said “composition of Hindi” in the Northeast up to Class X “won’t be accepted at any cost”.

Gogoi demanded immediate withdrawal of the order. He said that the effort to take away the mother tongue from the indigenous people of Northeast would not be accepted.