Mumbai, June 24 -- Maharashtra Samajwadi Party President Abu Azmi on Tuesday supported the state government's decision to make Hindi the default third language in schools.

He said Marathi should be the first language, English the second, and Hindi the third. Azmi also said Hindi should be declared the national language.

Speaking to the reporters, Abu Azmi said, "Marathi is the first language; people run behind English as they are 'slaves', so it is the second language... I reiterate again and again that the third one should be Hindi. There is a committee in the Parliament that goes across the country to promote Hindi, and all the works of the central government also take place in Hindi. Some people want to play politics... Hindi should ...