Tamil Nadu leaders reject Union Minister’s ‘threats’ over three-language policy, demand rightful allocation of funds.
Chennai: Peeved over Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradan’s open threat to not release funds to Tamil Nadu if the New Education Policy (NEP) was not implemented, the gross neglect of the State in the Union Budget and other step-motherly treatments meted out by the Union Government, the DMK and its allies called for an agitation in Chennai on Tuesday, as the first phase of a determined fight to get back the State’s rights that had been taken away.
The mobilization of support on Monday for resisting the NEP and the alleged imposition of Hindi in the State through the insistence on implementing the three-language policy was reminiscent of the 1965 anti-Hindi agitation of the DMK, which it calls the 'Mozhi Por' (language war).
After winning the 1967 elections to the Assembly by riding on the popularity gained through the language war, the DMK brought in the legislation to adhere to the two-language formula that had ensured that Tamil Nadu remained the only State where English and Tamil or any other Indian language alone are taught in educational institutions till now.
Though Pradhan tried to explain that the present three-language formula did not insist on teaching Hindi gave the choice to learn any Indian language, most political parties in the State, with an exemption of the BJP, saw it as a ploy to introduce Hindi in schools and colleges through the backdoor and protested the move by the Union Government.
While the State and Union governments have been at loggerheads over the non-release of funds for disaster relief and various schemes, particularly the PM SHIRI that impacted the studies and the future of students for quite some time, Pradan’s statement ‘They have to come to the terms of the Indian Constitution’ piqued the Chief Minister M K Stalin, who hit back with a question: ‘Which section of the Indian Constitution made the three-language policy compulsory.’
In a message on X, Stalin said ‘We are only asking for our rights’ and asked Pradhan to not speak arrogantly as though his personal property was being coveted, lest the quintessential characteristic of the Tamil people was made evident to Delhi.
Education, which was in the concurrent list of the Constitution, was not the sole property of the Union Government and the ‘blackmail’ of the State to adopt the three-language formula if it wanted funds would not the tolerated by the people of the State, he said, adding that the States together formed the Union Government.
The communique calling for the protest in front of the Chennai Collector’s office on Monday 4 pm was signed by leaders of each and every party in the DMK-lead alliance, including the TNCC president K Selvaperunthogai, Dravidar Kazhagam president K Veeramani and VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan.
Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, condemning Pradhan’s statement that the State’s rejection of the three-language formula was ‘politically motivated’, said that Tamil Nadu would not put up with the Union Government’s behavior to issue threats for demanding the funds that were due to the State.
Leader of the opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami had averred that only the two-language formula would be followed in Tamil Nadu as it was brought in by C N Annadurai and then carried forward by M G Ramachandran and J Jayalalithaa and said it was not right to force the State to go in for the three language policy.
The chief coordinator of Naam Tamilar Katchi Seeman also attacked the Union Government for holding back Rs 2152 crore funds meant for school education. He described the NEP that Pradan was forcing the State to adopt, as a blend of Manu Dharma and Varnashrama that aimed at establishing Sanskrit domination through the imposition of Hindi. The NEP could not be accepted as it promoted the Hindu hereditary vocation system.
