Name boards in Hindi smeared with black paint in Chennai

Chennai: A few DMK cadres smeared black paint on the Hindi letters on the name boards of the St Thomas Mount Post Office in Alandur, and the adjoining BSNL office here on Monday in protest against the alleged imposition of Hindi through the National Education Policy.

As many as eleven DMK cadres were booked for defacing the Hindi letters on the name boards of Pollachi and Palayamkottai Railway Stations on Sunday, police said.

The members had raised slogans against the Centre for attempting to impose Hindi upon Tamil Nadu, which follows a dual language policy by adopting Tamil and English.

BJP state chief K Annamalai took strong exception to the protest and said these 'misguided individuals roaming around with a can of black paint, striking Hindi letters' opposing the three-language formula in the NEP should visit the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Office with the same can of black paint.

"They can check for the addresses of these offices from the corrupt DMK Ministers as they frequently visit these places," Annamalai said in a post on the social media platform X.

Describing the DMK party as a 'bunch of confused nincompoops who have different standards for their families and others' he said the DMK members either run CBSE/Matriculation schools offering three languages or ensure that their children/grandchildren were enrolled in such schools.

"After securing their children's future, they go around spreading fallacies and propaganda against the three-language policy; irony of things," he said.

Annamalai ridiculed the Chief Minister saying "Thiru @mkstalin should also bring his INDI Alliance partners to TN and give them also a box of black paint."

BJP state vice president Narayanan Thirupathy jocularly said in a post on X "Hello DMK @arivalayam party men, Why are you wasting your time and energy by going to railway stations to black out Hindi words by paint." "If you really have the guts and if you really mean to wipe Hindi words, I dare you to black out, paint Hindi words in the 500 rupee notes you have in your houses. Will you? First, tell your family that you are going to do it, then you will face the music," Thirupathy said.