Reacting to an announcement by the State Selection Commission (SSC) that entrance exams for over 20,000 Union government jobs will only be conducted in Hindi and English, Rajya Sabha MP and Women’s Wing Secretary of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Kanimozhi said, “The Indian Union’s sovereignty is rooted in its pluralism. On the contrary, trying to impose singularity on everything is going against the democratic spirit.”
Kanimozhi, who was elected the DMK’s deputy general secretary on Sunday, October 9, stated her condemnation of the move via Twitter. The announcement for the Combined Graduate Level (CGL) exams was made on September 30. The DMK MP made a statement on Tuesday, October 4 after pro-Kannada activist Arun Javagal brought the matter to her attention.
The CGL is the common entrance exam for various postings in Union government departments. Candidates must clear three ‘tiers’ or rounds. The Hindustan Times reports that 1,56,387 candidates passed Tier 1 in 2021.
The Union government has come under criticism several times for imposing Hindi. Reports also say that the Official Languages Commission has recommended Hindi as the mandatory medium of instruction in all non-technical and technical colleges and central institutes across the country.
This is not the first time that the DMK MP has spoken out against Hindi imposition. Last year, at the Chennai Airport, a Central Industrial Security Forces (CISF) asked Kanimozhi if she was Indian after she told them that she did not know Hindi. Following this incident, she shared what had occured on her Twitter handle and asked, “I would like to know from when being Indian is equal to knowing Hindi?” A few weeks later, director Vetrimaaran known for films like Asuran and Vada Chennai also spoke about going through a similar experience at the New Delhi airport. The official had asked how he did not know the “country’s mother tongue” and exclaimed that “Tamilians and Kashmiris were breaking the country,” Vetrimaaran recalled.
The two incidents sparked a new wave of anti-Hindi imposition campaigns. Many people, including Kollywood celebrities, Kanimozhi, and DMK Youth Wing Secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin who is also now the MLA of Chepauk, shared photos of themselves wearing T-shirts that said “I am a Tamizh Pesum Indian”(I am a Tamil-speaking Indian) or “Hindi theriyathu, poda!” (I don’t know Hindi). At the time, sources close to Kanimozhi told TNM that the DMK leader had started the initiative in a small way and printed a few T-shirts. However, the trend has caught on.