Pune, June 27 -- NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday also waded in on the matter, saying that Hindi should not be made mandatory from class 1 but could be introduced after class 5, as burdening primary school students with additional languages is not appropriate. "Hindi should not be made compulsory in primary education. There is no objection to Hindi being introduced after class 5. A large section of the country speaks Hindi, and there is no reason to ignore the language completely," said Pawar. "If we put the burden of another language on students and the mother tongue gets sidelined in the process, then that is not appropriate. The state government should give up its insistence on making Hindi compulsory from class 1," he added. Pawar said he supported the Thackeray cousins' stand, adding that it is good if Marathi people unite over it....