Kolkata, March 8 -- Following the row over allegations of attempt to impose the Hindi language in Tamil Nadu, Union Minister Sukanta Majumdar clarified that in the three-language formula, the emphasis was on the mother tongue.

Sukanta Majumdar said, "In the three-language formula, first, you have to choose your mother tongue, and the central government is insisting on promoting education in the mother tongue. In the three-language formula, the first choice is the mother tongue, the second choice is English, and the third is any one language from the list of 22 languages.

"If Tamil people have some animosity or allergy to Hindi they have other languges. They can select Bengali, they can slect Telugu, they can select Malayalam. South Indi...