New Delhi

As the country observed Hindi Diwas on Wednesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said Hindi is the friend of all Indian languages and it "unites the whole nation in a thread of unity" as an official language.

The minister took to the micro-blogging site Twitter to express his views at the event and made it clear that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government is committed for the "parallel development" of all local languages including Hindi.

राजभाषा हिंदी राष्ट्र को एकता के सूत्र में पिरोती है।

हिंदी सभी भारतीय भाषाओं की सखी है। मोदी सरकार हिंदी सहित सभी स्थानीय भाषाओं के समानांतर विकास हेतु प्रतिबद्ध है।

हिंदी के संरक्षण व संवर्धन में योगदान देने वाले महानुभावों को नमन करता हूँ।

सभी को 'हिंदी दिवस' की शुभकामनाएं। pic.twitter.com/mQXnUa28PF

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) September 14, 2022

The minister's views came hours before taking part in the second All India Official Language Conference organized on the occasion of Hindi Diwas in Surat.

Every year Hindi Diwas is observed on September 14. The day is dedicated to the Hindi language after it was announced as the official language of the Union of India.

Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, had officially declared September 14 as the Hindi Diwas.

The Constituent Assembly of India declared Hindi, written in the Devanagari script, to be the official language of the Union of India on September 14, 1949.

The decision of using Hindi as an official language of India was legalised by the Constitution of India on January 26, 1950.

Hindi was made one of the official languages in order to streamline government operations in a multilingual nation.

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Spoken as a native language by 258 million people, Hindi is recognised as the fourth most spoken language in the world.