Tamil Nadu will never bow down to Centre’s hegemony on language: Minister

Chennai: Tamil Nadu on Tuesday asserted that it will never bow down to the Union Government’s hegemony on the language issue by reiterating its opposition to “imposition of Hindi” in the garb of a three-language formula and the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi told a protest organised by the ruling DMK and its alliance partners on Tuesday that the statement by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan that he will not release funds to Tamil Nadu unless the state implements NEP 2020 was “unfortunate”.

Leaders of DMK, Congress, VCK, CPI(M), CPI, IUML, MDMK, and others part of the Secular Progressive Alliance (SPA) held a massive protest against Pradhan’s statement on NEP and three language-formula. Pradhan had last week said the Centre won’t release about Rs 2,400 crore under Samagra Shiksha (SS) scheme to Tamil Nadu since the state hasn’t implemented the NEP.

Poyyamozhi said he had met Pradhan twice in the past to demand release of funds for the state.

“He (Pradhan) categorically said he will release the funds within hours of TN signing the NEP. Let me be crystal clear, Tamil Nadu rejects NEP, National Education Policy and three-language formula. We reject PM SHRI. Tamil Nadu will never bow down to the Union Government’s hegemony. We will stand for the rights of the Dravidian land,” Poyyamozhi said.

The protest demonstration on Tuesday is part of the DMK’s efforts to ratchet up pressure on the BJP and Union Government on Tamil Nadu’s opposition to NEP and “imposition of Hindi.” Tamil Nadu says it won’t implement a three-language formula as it would indirectly allow Hindi into the state and that the two language formula followed since 1968 will not be altered.

VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan said the insistence of a three language formula is to “reduce” the importance of Tamil in Tamil Nadu and cited the examples of native languages of Bihar and Rajasthan “being forgotten” after Hindi was introduced.