Roll-back ‘dahi’ circular: Annamalai to FSSAI

K Annamalai wrote to FSSAI chairperson Rajesh Bhushan saying Modi has always promoted regional languages

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday demanded immediate roll-back of the FSSAI circular asking state-owned cooperative milk societies to display ‘Dahi’ on curd packets sold by them, saying it was “not in tandem” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policy of promoting regional languages.

K Annamalai, co-in charge of BJP election campaign in Karnataka and chief of Tamil Nadu state unit, wrote to FSSAI chairperson Rajesh Bhushan saying Modi has always promoted regional languages and recalled that for the first time, the New Education Policy has emphasised educating children in their mother tongue.

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“Our Honourable Prime Minister in various global forums, has praised the richness of the Tamil Language and its literature. So, this notification from FSSAI seems not to be in tandem with promoting regional languages as our Honourable Prime Minister intends,” Annamalai said in the letter.

He also demanded immediate rollback of the notification released by FSSAI asking for the use of ‘dahi’ instead of local languages. “Kindly allow the state-run co-operative milk societies to use their respective regional languages,” Annamalai said in the letter.

His letter came after the circular stoked a row in poll-bound Karnataka and Tamil Nadu with many viewing it as “Hindi imposition.”

FSSAI told the milk federations in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to display the word ‘dahi’ in curd packets sold by them prominently and add Kannada and Tamil equivalents in brackets.