“Speak in Hindi without the fear of making grammatical mistakes,” Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairperson Venkaiah Naidu told non-Hindi speaking members of the Upper House on Tuesday, PTI reported.

Naidu’s remarks came while he was chairing a meeting of the Hindi advisory committee of the Rajya Sabha, held after three-and-a-half years. The committee was formed to promote the use of the Hindi language in the Rajya Sabha secretariat.

At the meeting, Naidu said the best way to promote the language was by encouraging its use, not forcing others to adopt it.“You are members of Parliament and can speak freely without the fear of committing mistakes,” he said, adding, “A king can do no wrong.”

The vice president said that when he first came to Delhi, he did not know Hindi either but picked up the language by speaking without hesitation, The Times of India reported. Naidu suggested that north Indians should also learn a south Indian language, as a way to promote unity, and directed the committee to meet twice a year, the daily reported.

Earlier too, Naidu has spoken about how the Hindi language could help unify Indians. At an event in November, Naidu said there was “no element more powerful” than the Hindi language to unify Indians, and that Hindi had played a “historic role in the development of India’s unity, integrity and linguistic goodwill”.