The Bharatiya Janata Party unit of Tamil Nadu on Thursday denied any action to make Hindi as a medium for exams and said “in such a hypothetical situation they would oppose it”. The national party’s reaction came after the ruling DMK’s youth wing and students wing announced that they will organise protests across Tamil Nadu on October 15 against the recommendation of a Parliamentary panel to make Hindi the medium of instruction in central institutes.
BJP state president K Annamalai said that “the Union government has no such plans” while blaming the DMK for spreading rumours.
A joint statement was issued by the secretaries of the youth wing, Udhaynidhi Stalin and students wing, CVMP Ezhilarasan late on Wednesday night saying that they will hold protests in all the district headquarters.
“This appears to be a covert conspiracy to deprive the youth of non-Hindi speaking states of employment by creating a condition of employment only if they study Hindi,” the DMK statement read.
“The attempt by the Union government to make Hindi the common language of India is against the Constitution, deprives the rights of the states and is against social justice.” This move comes after chief minister and DMK president M K Stalin on Monday told the BJP-led Union government not to “force another language war by imposing Hindi.”
Stalin was responding to a report presented to the President Droupadi Murmu by the Parliamentary Committee on official language chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah.
{{/usCountry}}Stalin was responding to a report presented to the President Droupadi Murmu by the Parliamentary Committee on official language chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah.
{{/usCountry}}He cited media reports that the committee has recommended for Hindi to replace English as the medium of instruction in all central institutions, central universities and Kendriya Vidyalayas.
Meanwhile, BJP chief Annamalai said that no committee made any recommendation as alleged by the DMK and that he has studied in the institutions mentioned by the DMK without knowing Hindi. “I have studied in IIM- Lucknow in English without knowing a word of Hindi. Similarly, I passed the civil service exam and worked in another state (in Karnataka as an IPS officer),” Annamalai said.
“ All exams will be conducted based on those in Eighth Schedule which are the official languages, including our mother tongue Tamil. No committee has given any instruction different from this. DMK is spreading rumours. If in case the panel initiates such a move, the Tamil Nadu BJP will oppose it.”
The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution has 22 languages, including Tamil entitled to equal rights. Stalin has repeatedly urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make all these languages as the official languages of the Union government and Tamil as the official language in the Madras high court besides English.