Chennai: Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader Udhayanidhi Stalin on Monday hit out at the BJP-led Union government, which he alleged was attempting a Hindi imposition on the Southern state.
“The Union Government has not allotted funds to us in the union budget and even Tamil Nadu’s name is not there in the budget. After the cyclonic disaster happened in Tamil Nadu, we asked for funds from the central government to release funds, but they still have not allotted it; only SDRF funds were given to us. Tamil Nadu people are watching their actions and when the time comes, they will reply to them,” Stalin told ANI.
“Education was in the state list before and it is in the concurrent list now. The Union government is trying to impose Hindi and our Chief Minister will not accept it. The Union government is trying to impose Hindi on us and please don’t impose Hindi on us,” the deputy chief minister of Tamil Nadu said.
DMK leader Saravanan Annadurai also hit out at Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai for supporting Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s statement on the New Education Policy (NEP) and refused the need to study Hindi.
Speaking to ANI, Annadurai alleged that Annamalai was made the chief of Tamil Nadu BJP so that he could be a ‘puppet.’.
“Anamalai is indebted to the RSS high command, who have made him the Tamil Nadu chief… He was made the chief of TN BJP so that he could be a puppet in those hands. If he understands Tamil Nadu’s history, he will oppose the three-language formula,” Annadurai said.
“We don’t want Hindi. Why should we read Hindi? What’s the use of studying Hindi? Will it make us become a doctor…? Why should we read Hindi? So that we can understand what the Prime Minister says? We should read Hindi because we can converse with North Indian immigrants who are flocking to the state of Tamil Nadu. People here are well educated and migrating to the USA, London, European countries, Australia, China and other countries. There is absolutely no use in studying Hindi,” he added.
DMK MP Kanimozhi said, “All those in the BJP should understand the difference between taking a language as a preferred language and studying it when there is no other way and when there is a need to study it.”
“Before the BJP came to power, they were teaching German, but now they are forcing Sanskrit to be studied. What is the benefit of studying Sanskrit? Language imposition, dominance imposition, and all these are what the Union government is doing. That is why we are opposing this language imposition, Hindi imposition,” she added.
K. Annamalai on Sunday had slammed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin for his stance against the three-language formula in education.
“Private schools where the sons, daughters or grandchildren of Tamil Nadu ministers, including the Chief Minister, study can teach trilingualism. Shouldn’t government schools where our children study teach trilingualism–Tamil, English and a third Indian language?” Annamalai said in a post on X.
The BJP leader accused the DMK government of imposing an “outdated” education policy of the 1960s on the children of Tamil Nadu.
“In private schools run by DMK across Tamil Nadu, most of them have the CBSE trilingual curriculum. Why is it a scam only for government school students? Is the Chief Minister saying that people should learn multiple languages only if they have money? It is now 2025,” Annamalai said.
“The world is developing rapidly. And what is the point of imposing your outdated policy of the 1960s on the children of Tamil Nadu?” he added.
Annamalai’s reaction came after Stalin slammed Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for saying that the DMK government has to come to terms with the Indian Constitution when reacting to the three-language formula in the New Education Policy.
