Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam President MK Stalin on Wednesday postponed his party’s proposed protest against the alleged attempts by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre to impose Hindi, reported PTI.

Stalin changed his mind hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah clarified that he had never pitched for Hindi to be made national language. The DMK had planned the “language protest” on September 20.

Earlier in the evening, Shah claimed that he had never called for the imposition of Hindi over other regional languages. “I had only requested for learning Hindi as the second language after one’s mother tongue,” he added at an event in Ranchi. Shah’s remarks came days after his “Hindi as unifier” comment triggered a backlash in the southern states.

Shah added that Hindi should be one’s choice for second language. “There should be one language in the country, if you want to learn a second language then let it be Hindi, this was my request,” he said. “I don’t understand why it was found offensive.”

Stalin pointed out that Shah had said he had been “wrongly understood”. The DMK leader, however, added that the his party would oppose any attempt to impose Hindi.

On Saturday, Stalin had asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clarify Shah’s statement on the importance of having a single language for the country. “We have been continuously waging protest against the imposition of Hindi,” Stalin had said. “Today’s remarks made by Amit Shah gave us a jolt. It will affect the unity of the country. We demand that he takes his statement back.” In a tweet, Stalin had asked the Bharatiya Janata Party to withdraw the one language idea.

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