Pune, June 20 -- Amid the language row in Maharashtra, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP-SP) supremo Sharad Pawar said on Friday that Hindi should not be ignored but any compulsion was inappropriate.
Seeking to clear his stance on the language issue, Pawar said that there should be no compulsion, but "hating Hindi" is not in the interest of the students.
"Whoever wants to learn it (Hindi), he should do it. Whatever the student's parents have guided the student, they should decide accordingly," he said. "If someone is learning on one's own, there is no reason to say no," he opined.
The NCP supremo said that nearly 60 per cent of the country's population speaks Hindi. "Therefore, it is not right to ignore the language to maintain harmony. ...