"Suffocating Non-Hindi Speakers": MK Stalin Doubles Down, BJP Hits Back

Doubling down on his vow to not allow "Hindi imposition" in Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister MK Stalin has asserted that his state will not be blackmailed into surrendering to the central government's demand of implementing the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020.

A defiant Mr Stalin has also challenged the BJP to make the "three-language policy" - advocated by the NEP - its core agenda for the 2026 state elections - with an assumption that it would backfire.

Claiming that Tamil Nadu has already achieved what the NEP aims to do by 2030, he compared the situation with that of an LKG student lecturing a PhD holder. Dravidians set the course for the country to follow, he said, intensifying his opposition to the language policy.

"Tamil Nadu will not tolerate Hindi colonialism replacing British colonialism...Hindi imposition to a nauseating extent is suffocating non-Hindi speakers - from names of schemes to awards to Union government institutions," said Mr Stalin.

He also slammed Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan for trying to threaten the state to accept "Hindi imposition". His pointed attack follows Mr Pradhan's warning that funds for Tamil Nadu would be withheld until the state accepts the NEP in its entirety.

Read: "Entitled Bigots": MK Stalin's Long Post Against 3-Language Policy

The National Education Policy advocates a three-language policy but denies "imposing" any language on any state. However, it has yet to find a taker in Tamil Nadu. Mr Stalin has been a strong critic of the three-language policy that he fears would "impose" Hindi on non-Hindi speaking natives of the state.

While the DMK says that no language must be imposed on the people and that Tamils have scaled great heights following the two-language system thus far, the BJP in Tamil Nadu argues that a three-language formula is the need of the hour and would help people when they travel to other states.

Mr Stalin's latest remark came on a day Union Home Minister Amit Shah will be in Tamil Nadu to attend the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) raising day event.

Read: "True Chauvinists, Anti-Nationals Are The Hindi Zealots": MK Stalin

Tamil Nadu BJP has clarified that the naming of the centre's flagship programmes in Hindi is not intentional, with their state unit chief K Annamalai saying that the Hindi names of the schemes given by the current regime are better than those the UPA government coined after former prime ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi.

He also accused Mr Stalin of not popularising the Tamil names of the central programmes.

"The centre has given Tamil names to a few trains in Tamil Nadu. What had MK Stalin done during the UPA regime to get Tamil names for trains? There are Tamil names for flagship programmes in Hindi and the Tamil Nadu government should popularise them," he said.