Annamalai dubs Stalin 'hyprocrite' for alleging Hindi imposition

Chennai: Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai on Wednesday hit back at Chief Minister M K Stalin, dubbing him a "hypocrite" for attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Centre's fund allocation for Sanskrit-Hindi and Tamil and thereby alleging Hindi imposition.

In a social media post, Annamalai said: "Thiru @mkstalin, instead of listing what you have done to propagate our Tamil language beyond the confines of our State, knowing there aren't any, you've decided to move on to the next topic. It was not our claim; it is a reality, and the Sengol today also stands as a testament in the Parliament to our Hon PM Thiru @narendramodi avl’s commitment to spreading the Tamil language and culture."

Further, he said: "Only a Hypocrite would ask about the increased allocation of funds to Sanskrit over Tamil, knowing the rationality behind it very well. We are calling you a “HYPOCRITE” because this is the allocation for the development of Sanskrit & Tamil between 2006-14. Sanskrit: ₹675.36 Crores. Tamil: ₹75.05 Crores. What were you doing back then?

"What were you doing while former Home Minister Thiru P Chidambaram submitted over 170 recommendations to popularise Hindi nationwide? Thiru MK Stalin, you deliberately despirtualised Thiruvalluvar to suit your propaganda. Search for cheerleaders elsewhere for your defunct propaganda. Your hatred has blinded you from seeing a locomotive named after our great Rani Velu Nachiyaar. You had a problem with Vande Mataram back then and have a problem with Vande Bharat today. Doesn't come as a surprise to us!"

Stalin, writing to DMK workers, said that between 2014 and 2023, the union government allotted Rs 2,435 crore to the Central Sanskrit University and the National Sanskrit University. During the same period, only Rs 167 crore was allotted to Central Institute of Classical Tamil. Fund allocation and expenditure has increased manifold for the promotion of Sanskrit and Hindi.

"The union government, out-and-out, is functioning with a feeling of linguistic hegemony and pays mere lip service to Tamil for the sake of votes," the chief minister alleged.

While the BJP claims that Prime Minister Narendra Modi held Tamil in high esteem and that the 3-language formula is for the growth of languages of the states, the difference in allocation of funds for Tamil and Sanskrit would make it pretty clear that they are "enemies" of Tamil, Stalin alleged.