Chennai: In what could be seen as retaliation to the DMK and allies vociferously opposing Hindi and warning of massive protests if Hindi was 'imposed' in Tamil Nadu, the BJP has threatened to expose the DMK leaders who 'silently' encouraged their wards to study Hindi but wielded that language as a political tool to oppose the Centre.
BJP's national secretary H. Raja, who has a penchant for courting controversies, has warned of identifying the children of DMK, MDMK and DK office bearers besides MPs and MLAs, who are studying Hindi in the State and launch an 'agitation' to get those children admitted to Tamil medium schools.
"First, close down Sunshine Montessori and Sunshine Senior Secondary school and Kingston school to prove that Tamil is in your blood. Hindi for livelihood (and) opposition to Hindi in politics? You can't hoodwink Tamil people," Raja tweeted apparently hitting back at DMK chief M. K. Stalin who on Saturday averred that Hindi is not in the blood of the people of Tamil Nadu.
Reacting to the Union HRD Ministry's draft New Education Policy 2019 which attempt to introduce trilingual system of education in schools making it mandatory to introduce Hindi in non-Hindi speaking States, Stalin said his party MPs would take up the matter in Parliament. There is no space for Hindi in the blood of Tamilians, he said.
Slamming the DMK and other parties for spreading a misinformation campaign on Hindi, BJP state president Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan said Stalin, MDMK leader Vaiko, CPI leader Mutharasan and Congress leader P. Chidambaram jumped the gun and were spreading false propaganda about "imposition" of Hindi.
Despite the clarification from the Centre that Hindi would not be made mandatory, the opposition leaders were relentless making statements contrary to truth.
The anti-Hindi agitation took place when Congress leader Bhaktavatsalam was the Chief Minister, she pointed out and further said that the police at that time opened fire at the protesters.
"But now the Congress has joined hands with the DMK and was speaking about imposition of Hindi. This is nothing but a farce." Also, Chidambaram headed the committee that looked into ways and means to increase the use of Hindi in government communication, she added.
