MK Stalin, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday to complain about “the aggressive attempts of the Union government” to impose Hindi. He claimed that these efforts were “impractical and divisive in nature” and put non-Hindi speakers in a very difficult situation in many ways.
A parliamentary commission has proposed that Hindi be used as the primary language of instruction in technical and non-technical higher education institutions, such as the IITs, in Hindi-speaking states and the appropriate regional languages in other regions of the nation. The group also suggested that Hindi be added to the list of UN-recognized languages.
Stalin recently advised the Centre to avoid starting a new “language war by imposing” Hindi.
“The number of people speaking languages other than Hindi is numerically more than Hindi-speaking people in the Indian Union. I’m sure you would appreciate that every language has its own speciality with its uniqueness and linguistic culture,” Stalin said in the letter.
“The approach of the Union government should be to include all languages, including Tamil, in the 8th Schedule, keeping in view scientific development and technological facilities, promoting all languages and keeping open avenues of progress in terms of education and employment equal to speakers of all languages,” the Tamil Nadu chief minister added.
Stalin further asked that the various measures to impose Hindi that were suggested in the report not be pursued and that the glorious torch of Indian unification be kept blazing at all times.
The DMK’s youth wing secretary, and Stalin’s son, Udayanidhi Stalin, issued a warning on Saturday, saying that if Hindi was imposed on the state, the party would demonstrate in Delhi against the BJP-led government.
The Chepauk-Thiruvallikeni member warned that the party would not watch helplessly as the Modi-led Union government ignored the concerns of the populace as he led a large demonstration in front of Chennai’s iconic Valluvar Kottam.