Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin accused the BJP-led Centre of being 'brazen' over 'imposition' of Hindi and asserted that his party, the ruling DMK, would continue to resist any attempts to force the language upon the people or the State.
Addressing a Language Martyrs Day public meeting here on Wednesday, held in honour of those who had died as part of the anti-Hindi agitation in the State in the past, Stalin said the ruling BJP at the Centre has made it a practice to "impose Hindi."
"The BJP government which is ruling the Indian Union has made it a practice to impose Hindi -- from administration to education -- (and) they think they have come to power to impose Hindi."
"Like one nation, one religion, one election, one (entrance) test, one food, one culture, they are trying to destroy the culture of other national races with one language," Stalin, also the DMK president, charged. Recalling an October 2022 State Assembly resolution against Hindi imposition, Stalin said "our struggles against Hindi imposition will continue.
Our efforts to protect Tamil will continue forever." He alleged, "The BJP government is brazenly into Hindi imposition." While it celebrates Hindi Day, the same was not the case with other State languages.
"The importance shown to Hindi is not only ignoring other languages but also amounts to destroying them," he said.
Stalin further said that between 2017-20, the Centre granted Rs 643 crore towards promoting Sanskrit. The allocation for Tamil was a little less than Rs 23 crore, he added.
"We are not enemy to any language. One can learn as many languages out of one's own interest. At the same time, we will oppose any move to impose something," the Chief Minister added.
Following the several anti-Hindi agitations, former chief minister C N Annadurai had brought a legislation to ensure a two-language formula of Tamil and English because of which the youth from the State were successful in many parts of the world, Stalin said.
"Anna did this to ensure the sacrifice of the language martyrs did not go waste," Stalin said about the two-language formula.
He recalled that Anna, the DMK founder, after leading the party to power in 1967 for the first time, gave Tamil Nadu its present name.
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