TN-Centre NEP standoff needless in any language
The Centre and Tamil Nadu must open talks on reaching a solution that only has the best interests of students in mind.
The schism emerging between the Tamil Nadu government and the Union government over the National Education Policy (NEP) and the three-language formula is a classic case of leaders talking at each other rather than to each other. Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan’s remark that Tamil Nadu will be denied Samagra Shiksha funds if it doesn’t implement the NEP and the three-language formula — the state has a two-language formula for its schools — sounds much too overbearing. The backlash from Tamil leaders was prompt: CM MK Stalin called it “brash blackmail” and leaders from most parties in the state made the three-language formula needlessly about “Hindi imposition”.
Both, the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government should reassess their positions. Education is on the Concurrent List, and denying funding to force states to cede ground on their roles and prerogatives on policy matters will only be perceived as coercion. Federal principles will have to be the lodestar in such matters. That said, Tamil leaders must keep in mind that the three-language formula, as worded in NEP, doesn’t impose any particular language on the states. It explicitly says, “The three languages ... will be the choices of States, regions, and of course the students themselves, so long as at least two of the three languages are native to India”. So, students in Tamil Nadu schools can learn any Indian language, be it Telugu, Bengali, Urdu, or any other, in addition to Tamil and English. The state’s anxieties are understandable given the germinal connection of its politics to linguistic identity and the campaign to promote Hindi across non-Hindi speaking regions by various dispensations at the Centre. Against this backdrop, the Centre and Tamil Nadu must open talks on reaching a solution that only has the best interests of students in mind.