Remove Hindi names from Central schemes, DMK legislator Ezhilan slams ‘subtle’ imposition

CHENNAI: Upping the ante against the BJP-led Union government on the language policy row, allies of the ruling DMK threw their weight behind the State government in the Assembly and accused the saffron party of threatening to 'divide' the country by imposing Hindi.

Opening the discussion on the motion in the House on Tuesday, DMK legislator Ezhilan Naganathan detailed the contents of the Official Languages Act 1976 and said that the State government must make efforts to rename in Tamil all the centrally sponsored schemes with Hindi nomenclature. "If you would be so outraged by the mere use of the Tamil alphabet 'Roo' in the Tamil Nadu budget, how is it fair to push a language indirectly by naming schemes in Hindi?" asked Ezhilan.

An articulate VCK legislator 'Aloor' Shahnavas lambasted the BJP for imposing Hindi and said, "If they (BJP) impose Hindi, it will not unite the nation. It will only divide the country." Speaking on the motion, Shahnavas said that while the BJP claimed that the NEP provided for learning any of the 22 official languages, but on the contrary the saffron party’s Tamil Nadu unit leaders were asking whether students wanted Hindi or not?

Commenting that the BJP regime at the Centre must celebrate the Keezhadi findings if it really cared about the integrity of the nation, Shahnavas said that the Union government has not released the report of the archaeological excavations because it would belie their claims about Sanskrit civilization and establish that the Tamil civilization predates it. CPM legislator Nagai Maali said that Tamil Nadu was flourishing in the country owing to the two-language policy in vogue in the State. TVK MLA T Velmurugan, Congress state president K Selvaperunthagai, DMK's Chinnappa and Abdul Samad of MMK also spoke on the motion.