The people of Maharashtra are not anti-Hindi but it is not right to impose the language on students in primary schools, PTI quoted Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar as saying on Friday.

Mother tongue is more important during this age, the Opposition leader said.

Learning Hindi would be in the students’ interest after Class 5 as 55% of the people in India speak the language, he added.

Sharad Pawar’s remarks come amid a state-wide row, triggered by the Mahayuti government’s June 17 order making Hindi a “generally” taught third language for students in Class 1 to Class 5 across Marathi and English medium schools.

The Mahayuti alliance comprises the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena faction and the Nationalist Congress Party group led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.

According to the order, if 20 students per grade in a school wish to study any other Indian language, they can opt out of Hindi. If such a demand arises, either a teacher will be appointed or the language will be taught online.

On Monday, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that a final decision on the three-language formula in schools will be taken after consulting all stakeholders.

On Friday, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) announced that it will hold a joint protest against the three-language policy with Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena on July 5.

Answering a question on the protest announced by the two parties, Sharad Pawar said, “If the Thackerays want all political parties to join the protests, we need to know their stand and exact plans concerning this issue.”

Sharad Pawar’s faction of the Nationalist Congress Party is part of the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi coalition, which also includes the Congress and the Uddhav Sena.

The Mahayuti government has faced backlash twice over its language policy this year.

On April 16, it announced plans to implement the 2020 National Education Policy from the academic year 2025-’26.

This made Hindi compulsory as the third language for students of Class 1 to Class 5 in Marathi and English medium schools. This replaced the two-language structure with the three-language formula.

On April 20, a language consultation committee appointed by the state government opposed the decision to make Hindi a mandatory third language in primary schools.

On April 22, the state government stayed its April 16 order. The new directive said that while the three-language policy would still take effect, students would no longer be required to study Hindi as their third language.

The three-language formula refers to teaching students English, Hindi and the native language of a state. It was introduced in the first National Education Policy in 1968 and was retained in the new policy launched in 2020.