Hyderabad, March 18 -- Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Monday appeared to lend his support to the Centre's contentious three-language policy, saying that it was not good to play politics or spread hatred on the issue, and adding that English, Hindi and Telugu were all important.

Naidu's comments come at a time when his Tamil Nadu counterpart, MK Stalin, has repeatedly clashed with the Union government over what he alleges is the Centre trying to impose Hindi on the southern state. Naidu is a key member of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

"It is not good for the country to play politics on language issues or spread hatred against one language. For us, Telugu is our mother tongue. Hindi is a national language a...