India, April 23 -- After his assurances on Sunday against an imposition of Hindi in the state's education system, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis reiterated his stand at the cabinet on Tuesday. He said there will be no compulsion of Hindi as the third language in schools in Maharashtra from Class 1-5, and that although the three-language formula in the state is a mainstay, Hindi will be an optional language along with 15 others such as Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarati etc.

Alongside, facing public backlash, the Maharashtra state education department dropped the word "compulsory" from its earlier government resolution (GR) dated April 16 regarding the study of Hindi in schools, as an extension of the CM's point of view.

At the cabinet on Tues...