Repeat of 1965 anti-Hindi agitation in 2016?

Chennai: Leader of Opposition M.K. Stalin on Monday joined the Dravidar Kazhagam’s protest against the Centre’s proposed new education policy and warned that an agitation similar to one in 1965 would be triggered if the Centre persisted with this policy.

The DMK treasurer said the policy would push Tamil to the background and encourages Sanskrit, besides paving the way for caste-based education. Addressing protesters, he said the DMK had already appealed to the state government to take up a call attention motion in the Assembly against the new education policy.

It is stated that Sanskrit and Indian culture will be taught to students and foreign educational institutions will be permitted in India, he said and added that it would stop the free education for children up to 14 years. The policy will be against state’s rights and deny the rights for minorities, Stalin added.

He said the policy of permitting students who get higher marks to higher education and those who lag behind for vocational courses will pave the way for caste-based education.

Stalin said the new education policy would go against social justice and pluralistic character of the nation and asked if all the people in the country could be asked to follow the same food habits and dress culture. “Can anyone ask all people in India to take rice and wear dhoti. Can one education policy apply to the country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari,” he asked.

The DMK treasurer said of the five members who drafted the new education policy, four people were retired bureaucrats and the remaining one belonged to RSS. The education policy had been drafted without asking the opinions of educationists, he charged.

DK president K. Veeramani warned that Tamil Nadu would turn into a battle field if the new education policy was not withdrawn and demanded that education become a state subject. Former TNCC president Kumari Anandan and VCK deputy general secretary Vanniarasu too participated in the protest.