President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday asked Hindi speakers to give space and respect to regional languages across the country. An an event on the occasion of Hindi Divas in New Delhi, Kovind said people in several parts of the country opposed Hindi, despite it being categorised as an official language decades ago, PTI reported.

“Non-Hindi speaking people desire that we [Hindi-speaking people] give attention to their languages,” Kovind said. “Those who speak Hindi should give space to other languages. We all have the responsibility to give respect to non-Hindi speaking people and regional languages,” he said. Kovind suggested that those who speak Hindi should greet non-Hindi speaking people in their regional languages. A Tamilian should be greeted with a “vanakkam”, a Sikh with “sat sri akal” and a Muslim with an “adaab”, he said.

The president also asked lawyers and doctors to use Hindi and other regional languages at work. “In India people do not understand the language of lawyers and doctors,” he said. “In courts, now, gradually Hindi and other languages are being spoken. Similarly, if the doctors start giving prescriptions in Devanagari and other languages, the doctor-patient distance will be reduced.”

Kovind also criticised those who said English was necessary to make India an economic superpower. “I want to ask those who say that without English India cannot be an economic power – how has China become an economic power by speaking Mandarin?”