Review status of Tamil development: Pon Radhakrishnan

Chennai: Contending that the southern States that have accepted Hindi are equally nurturing their respective regional languages, former Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan has demanded the State government to come out with a comprehensive report on the status of Tamil language and its development, especially in the wake of Tamil Nadu sidelining Hindi for nearly half-a-century.

"The State government should review the status of Tamil and how far the Tamils have benefited by opposing Hindi. The truth should be revealed,” he said. According to Mr. Radhakrishnan all the southern States such as Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, except Tamil Nadu, which have accepted Hindi, have prospered and the regional language in those States have not faded due to the language policy.

“It is high time Tamil Nadu undertakes a review and release the details for the public to decide the merits and demerits. The government could even fix a deadline to divulge the particulars. My humble appeal to the Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and School Education Minister K. A. Segottaiyan is they should commence the survey at the earliest,” he said.

The former Union Minister said blind opposition to Hindi would not augur well for the prosperity of the State, especially in terms of creating employment opportunities.

Meanwhile, BJP national secretary H. Raja assailed the DMK for being in a perpetual state of opposing NEET and said the Dravidian party was confusing the students with its needless opposition to the entrance test.

Also, the DMK has been opposing the draft New Education Policy without realising that the final policy was yet to be implemented, he said.