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DMK MP’s remarks on Hindi fan row, BJP launches attack
Senior DMK leader and Rajya Sabha MP, TKS Elangovan, allegedly said that ‘Hindi was a language of underdeveloped states.’
Senior Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader and Rajya Sabha MP, TKS Elangovan, stirred a row after he allegedly said that Hindi was a language of underdeveloped states and it will make Tamil people “shudras”, a derogatory term used for people considered to be belonging to the so-called “lower castes”.
“What will Hindi do? Hindi will make us all Shudras,” he can be heard saying in an undated video of an event in Chennai. HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the video .
In the video, he said that Hindi was not the first language of “developed states” such as West Bengal, Odisha, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat. “The undeveloped states— Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan— they speak Hindi,” he said.
On Monday, Elangovan clarified to the media that he didn’t imply caste and language but that he only meant that introduction of Hindi in non-Hindi speaking states would lead to enforcing of cultural practices of the north in southern India.
Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai issued a 21-second video clip on Twitter saying Elangovan was calling Hindi, the language of underdeveloped states and adopting it would make people a “Shudra”. “The DMK was always and will be a casteist party. They’ll never think beyond that,” Annamalai said.
BJP state vice president Naraynana Thirupathy told HT that the DMK stands exposed as a casteist party.
“Stalin proudly says that they are off-shot of the Justice Party which was filled with Brahmins and is anti-Dalit so the DMK is exposing itself as anti-Dalit,” said Thirupathy.
“Elangovan has to apologise for his provocative speech insulting Hindi speaking people. The DMK is trying to do divisive politics by emotionally distracting people with language and caste issues to cover up for their failings of the past one year. Every day the BJP is levelling charges against the DMK government. There is no economic growth, law and order is deteriorating and corruption is at its peak,” Thirupathy said.
The BJP’s Tamil Nadu leadership has maintained that they will not allow Hindi imposition in the state.
This is the second time in recent months that DMK leaders are making controversial statements against Hindi speakers. Tamil Nadu’s higher education minister K Ponmudi in May described Hindi speakers as “pani puri sellers” while attempting to support the state’s two-language policy (which is Tamil and English).
The minister had made these remarks during the 37th convocation at the state Bharathiar University in Coimbatore where the Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi was present. “While English is an international language, Tamil is a local language. We were told that learning Hindi would land us in jobs. Is that so? You go and see in our state and in Coimbatore. Who are those people who sell pani puris?” Ponmudi had said.
The DMK has been in the forefront of anti-Hindi agitations and the party’s widespread protests against the Indira Gandhi-led union government in the 1960s is what brought down the Congress government in Tamil Nadu and the DMK came to power for the first time in 1967. Since then, the DMK and the AIADMK have alternatively ruled Tamil Nadu. Then Chief Minister and DMK founder CN Annadurai in 1967 announced a two-language policy – Tamil and English –and successive governments have maintained the policy.
The DMK government has been opposing a few aspects of the National Education Policy, 2020 particularly the three-language formula and have firmly stated that Tamil Nadu will continue to follow the existing two-language policy.
The DMK has not clarified on either of their leaders’ remarks demeaning Hindi speakers.
Chief minister MK Stalin in fact urged for Tamil language to be an official language of India during a government function when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Chennai on May 26 to launch a slew of infrastructure projects. “Tamil should be made the official language of the Union on par with Hindi and recognised as the court language in the high court,” Stalin had appealed to Modi on stage. Modi, who spoke after Stalin, elaborated on his love for the language quoting poet Subramania Bharathiyar and as well as the efforts taken by his government for Tamil language.
