Narendra Modi one of the many PM candidates in BJP: Murali Manohar Joshi

NEW DELHI: BJP leader Murali Manohar Joshi today said Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is one of the many prime ministerial candidates of the party.

"I think there are several able people in the party and Narendra Modi also is a capable man," he said in reply to a question on whether the Gujarat Chief Minister is a prime ministerial candidate of the party.

Joshi was talking to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar here on the occasion of Hindi Diwas.

He said it was important for the country to restore the status of Hindi language to protect national identity and culture.

"For Hindi this (Hindi Diwas) is a day of shame... The danger to Hindi is not from foreigners but from those who speak it. Our own people feel ashamed in speaking this. In courts, government offices and other places, Hindi is being treated as a secondary language," he said.

Observing that the status of Hindi will not be restored until senior officers in government offices start making their notes and minutes in this language, Joshi said a Jan Bhasha Andolan on the lines of the agitation for the Jan Lokpal Bill is needed to bring this change.

"The day it (using Hindi as the primary language) happens in the Prime Minister's Office, this (restoring the status of Hindi) will happen tomorrow. But it will happen when you people organize a movement for Jan Bhasha on the lines Jan Lokpal," he said.

Calling convent and English medium education a threat for Hindi language, he said, "It is only our fault that Hindi is treated as a secondary language."