Chennai: Union urban development and information & broadcasting minister M. Venkaiah Naidu claimed that the NDA’s presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind is sure to win with a huge margin. He said that larger sections of the political spectrum are all supporting Ram Nath Kovind as he is above party.
“The only qualification of the President is to uphold the constitution. Congress is now talking about ideology. The only ideology for the President is his commitment to the constitution— commitment, character, calibre, capacity and conduct. Our candidate has all these qualities. That’s why a majority of the parties across the country is supporting him. He will win with comfortable margin,” Venkaiah told reporters at the airport here on Sunday.
Pointing that the Congress candidate (Meira Kumar) was talking about conscience, he said if people went by conscience, they would not vote for Congress because past incidents showed the manner in which that party got V.V. Giri elected. “Democracy and Congress don’t go together,” he said. The Centre would not misuse article 356 to dismiss the government in TN, he said in reply to a question.
No question of imposing Hindi
Earlier in the day, he ruled out any move by the Centre to impose Hindi on the people. “We want each one of you to learn your mother tongue - Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and be proficient in your mother tongue first,” he said.
So long as one was in TN, Tamil would be sufficient. But the moment one stepped out of the state, then one has to know the language of that region. “I want the TN youth to become IAS officers, political leaders. There is no imposition at all. That is not the policy of the government. That’s the controversy which is being created. People should learn as many languages as possible,” he said.
