PM Narendra Modi in Atal Behari Vajpayee's footsteps, to speak HindI at UN General Assembly

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver his speech at the UN General Assembly in Hindi. He is expected to address the UN on September 27.

Addressing a Hindi Divas function on Sunday, home minister Rajnath Singh pointed out Atal Behari Vajpayee was the first Prime Minister to speak in Hindi at the UN. “I, as a minister, also spoke in Hindi once... Our PM will also speak in Hindi at the UN,” he said.

“The PM also speaks Hindi when he meets foreign dignitaries,” said Mr Singh amidst applause at a function organised at Rashtrapati Bhavan. He said 55 per cent of India speaks Hindi while 85 to 90 per cent people understand Hindi though it is not their mother tongue.

Mr Singh said people like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Mahatma Gandhi and N. Gopalaswami Ayyangar had advocated expansion and popularisation of Hindi even though their mother tongues were different. The home minister said Sanskrit is the mother of all Indian languages while Hindi and other regional languages are sisters.