Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], January 11 (ANI): Shortly after Ravichandran Ashwin's comments on Hindi, which sparked a debate, Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Tamil Nadu President K Annamalai voiced his agreement with the famous cricketer on Friday, calling Hindi a 'link language' and a 'language of convenience.'Responding to Ashwin's remarks, Annamalai elaborated, "Correct. It is not our national language which Annamalai is also telling you. Not only my dear friend Ashwin has to say that. It is not the national language. It was a link language, it is a language of convenience. Nowhere anyone is saying that Hindi is our national language."Earlier on Friday, Ashwin, who had recently retired from international cricket, addressed students in Chennai during their graduation ceremony. During his speech, he said that Hindi is not India's national language, instead it is an official language. The language debate in Tamil Nadu has been a point of contention, with Chief Minister MK Stalin also writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about concerns regarding linguistic diversity and representation.Stalin condemned the distorted rendition of the state anthem, without the reference to the glory of "Dravida" land, at a Doordarshan function in which Governor RN Ravi participated.The Chief Minister had also alleged that the central government had not done enough for the development of the Tamil language. In October 2024, Stalin stated that the Tamil language is the race and lifeblood of Dravidians, and said that if racism is the mother tongue of this land, then it is his pride."What has the Modi government done for the Tamil language that you claim to be praising? From 2013-2014 to 2022-2023, a total of Rs.2435 crore has been spent for the development of the Sanskrit language, Rs 2029 crore for the Central Sanskrit University in Delhi and Rs 406 crore for the National Sanskrit University in Tirupati," Stalin had said in October. "This is two and a half times more than what was spent ten years ago. During the same period, only Rs.167 crore was spent on the development of the Tamil language. In other words, only 7 per cent of the expenditure on Sanskrit was allocated to Tamil," the CM added. (ANI)