Tamil is the oldest and a beautiful language, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday, while addressing students at the ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’ programme organised in New Delhi’s Talkatora Stadium.
“Tamil is the oldest language. It is older than Sanskrit and is beautiful. I can only say ‘vanakkam’ (greeting) and I regret I cannot go beyond this,” he said in a chat here with school students and added that he regretted not able to speak the language.
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PM Modi, who spoke in Hindi during the entire interaction, also apologised to students across the country that he could not speak to them in their native languages. He hoped translated versions of his interaction would be available in other languages.
Modi was answering questions at an interaction with the students in a special programme ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’ (discussion on examinations), which was live streamed around schools in India.
Speaking at the ‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’, PM Modi asked the young audience to always keep alive the child inside them.
“Self confidence comes by challenging ourselves and working hard. We should always think of bettering ourselves,” PM Modi said at the packed Talkatora Stadium in the heart of the national capital.
“In addition to the right skills and the means, what a student needs is self-confidence,” he added.
Modi further asked his “young friends”, to always keep the student in them alive and concentrate on their goals.
“Concentration isn’t something that has to be specifically learnt. Every person does concentrate on something or the other during the day, it may be while reading, hearing a song, talking to a friend,” he said.
The prime minister said that students should compete with themselves instead of others.
“Do not compete with others, compete with yourself,” he said.
