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‘Linguistic tyranny’: MK Stalin slams LIC for displaying Hindi on its website in Tamil Nadu
MK Stalin said the use of Hindi was a cultural imposition.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin strongly criticised the use of the Hindi language on the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India's website in Tamil Nadu, saying that the portal has been "reduced to a propaganda tool for Hindi imposition".
In a post on microblogging site X, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief said, "The LIC website has been reduced to a propaganda tool for Hindi imposition. Even the option to select English is displayed in Hindi!"
He said the use of Hindi was a cultural imposition.
"This is nothing but cultural and language imposition by force, trampling on India's diversity. LIC grew with the patronage of all Indians. How dare it betray the majority of its contributors?" Stalin asked.
"We demand an immediate rollback of this linguistic tyranny," he said, adding a 'Stop Hindi Imposition' hashtag to the post.
Dr S Ramadoss, the founder of 'Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK)', termed this language switch as a "blatant imposition of Hindi on other language-speaking people".
“The central government and central government agencies have been trying to impose Hindi on the people who speak other languages including Tamil for a long time. Even if they get burned many times in this attempt, they never give up. Be it the central government or LIC, they should realize that they belong to all people and not only to Hindi-speaking people,” Ramadoss said in an X post.
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"The home page of LIC website should be changed to English immediately. LIC should immediately launch Tamil language service as the website currently has only Hindi and English bilingual services," the PMK leader wrote.
Over the past several months, MK Stalin and his deputy, Udhayanidhi Stalin, have been talking about preservation of Tamil culture and language.
In October, Stalin had posed several questions to Governor RN Ravi over the missed sentence with references to "Dravida" in the state anthem at a function.
The incident took place at a Hindi month celebration at Doordarshan Chennai, sparking a political controversy. Stalin had "suggested" that holding Hindi-oriented events in non-Hindi speaking states could be avoided. Instead, he said, "the celebration of the local language month in the respective states should be encouraged".
