India, Sept. 23 -- Dear Shri Amit Shah,
I understand why it became necessary for you to issue a clarification on your controversial statement on Hindi as the national language. If you had not done it, there was the possibility that the language agitation it sparked in southern states would have gained momentum, endangering even your political survival. Your own Karnataka Chief Minister's response was a case in point.
We saw how an effort to impose Urdu on the people of East Pakistan led to the creation of Bangladesh. We also saw how the Tamil speakers in Sri Lanka stood up against the imposition of Sinhala on them. You may not remember how the anti-Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu led to unprecedented violence in the state in the sixties.
Y...