Why Tamil Nadu is resisting NEP's three-language policy: All you need to know

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release Rs 2,152 crore in Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan funds.

After MK Stalin urged the people of Tamil Nadu to  join the language war, actor and Makkal Needhi Maiam founder Kamal Haasan met the Chief Minister and praised him for his stand against the three-language policy.

Stalin’s DMK has been alleging that the Centre imposed Hindi through the 3-language formula as part of the National Education Policy (NEP), a charge denied by the Union government.

Haasan stated on X that the state's language and culture is facing various pressures and praised Stalin for standing against them.

"At a time when the people of Tamil Nadu, the Tamil language, and Tamil culture are facing various pressures, Mr. Stalin, like his predecessors, has emerged as a bulwark to protect Tamil Nadu. I congratulate him with joy. Long live the people!" Haasan wrote on X.

Governor RN Ravi on Friday said that there's a strong demand for implementation of NEP 2020 because the youth feel "hugely deprived" of opportunities.

"There is huge demand for implementation of the NEP 2020. The youth of this region feel hugely deprived of opportunities compared to those from neighboring states due to the rigid two language policy of the State Government," the Governor said in a statement posted on X by the Tamil Nadu Raj Bhavan.

At the heart of the flashpoint between Centre and Tamil Nadu lies the ‘three language formula’. Three-language policy is supposed to be based on the choices of states, regions and of the student provided two of the three languages are native to India. It does not mandate Hindi as part of the three-language formula.  However, according to the Tamil Nadu government, it is a backdoor attempt to impose Hindi.

Discussions on language policy in education have been ongoing since Independence. The Radhakrishnan Commission in 1948-49 first proposed a three-language formula to promote inter-provincial understanding. This was later adopted in the National Education Policy of 1968 and retained in subsequent policies, including NEP 2020.

After the central government withheld Rs 2,152 crore meant for Tamil Nadu’s Samagra Shiksha scheme, citing the state’s refusal to implement NEP, Stalin raised concerns over the decision in a letter to the Prime Minister. The CM demanded the release of the funds meant for supporting the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

On February 15, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan urged the state to implement the three-language formula to ensure educational equality.

Pradhan had alleged "political motivation" as the reason for the DMK regime not agreeing to the NEP.  In response, Stalin claimed that the BJP was using the NEP not to improve education but to secretly push Hindi. “The Centre knows it can’t directly impose Hindi without facing fierce opposition, so it uses education as a backdoor,” he said.

Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai accused the DMK of hypocrisy. In a post on X, Annamalai alleged that while Stalin claims not to oppose any language, government school students in Tamil Nadu are denied the opportunity to learn a third language, unlike their peers in CBSE and matriculation private schools.

“Is Mr. Stalin implying that there is no restriction on learning a third language, but if you want to learn it, you should enrol your children in CBSE or matriculation schools run by DMK members?” Annamalai questioned. He also claimed that the DMK had double standards, with “one rule for the wealthy and another for the poor”.

Meanwhile, actor-turned-politician Ranjana Nachiyaar resigned from the BJP, citing opposition to the three-language policy. In her resignation letter, she stated that the imposition of multiple languages was a mistake.