Chandrababu Naidu backs Centre amid DMK offensive: 'Will promote 10 languages in Andhra Pradesh'

Chandrababu Naidu's TDP is an alliance partner of the BJP and also part of the ruling NDA at the Centre. (File/PTI)

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday came out strongly in the Centre's support amid the ongoing row over the three-language formula in the New Education Policy and said that he was an advocate of learning not just three but multiple languages.

Interacting with the media following separate meetings with Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Naidu stressed on the need for multilingual education and said he would advocate learning 10 languages across universities in his state.

"We should promote Telugu and English, but it is better to learn Hindi so that we can mingle with people easily," he said responding to a question on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin's strong objections to the three-language formula mandated in the New Education Policy 2020.

The row escalated after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan indicated that Tamil Nadu stands to lose funding under the Samagra Shiksha programme for school education if it does not implement the NEP and adopt its three-language rule.

Stalin shot back, stating that Tamils would not accept such a "blackmail, and asked "which constitutional provision" made the three-language formula mandatory. The DMK has alleged that this formula was merely a guise for "Hindi imposition" and stated that it is determined not to allow the Centre to have its way on the matter.

Naidu added that language should be a tool for communication rather than a barrier to knowledge. He further encouraged the promotion of multiple languages and said while education in one’s mother tongue was a necessity, Hindi's role in national integration also needs to be acknowledged.