Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Sunday, October 16, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding Hindi imposition. “There are continuous efforts of the Union government to impose Hindi under the ‘one nation theory’ in non-Hindi speaking states,” he said.
The CM was responding to a recent report by the Parliamentary Committee on Official Languages, chaired by Home Minister Amit Shah. The report recommended that Hindi should be the compulsory medium of instruction in educational institutions of the Union government such as IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and central universities instead of English in Hindi speaking states and in other parts of the country, the respective language.
Stalin said in his letter that, “[The report] includes a recommendation that Hindi shall be made the medium of instruction in all technical, non-technical institutions and all Union government institutions including Kendriya Vidyalayas,” and added that the report also recommends, that youth would be eligible for certain jobs only if they had studied Hindi and removal of English as one of the compulsory papers in recruitment exams. “These are all against the federal principles of our constitution and would harm the nation’s multi-lingual fabric,” the CM further said.
Point out that there are 22 languages including Tamil in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, Stalin also said that, “All such languages have equal rights and there are several demands that some more languages should also be included under the schedule. I would like to point out that the number of people speaking languages other than Hindi is numerically more than Hindi-speaking people in the Indian Union. I am sure you would appreciate that every language has its own specialty with its uniqueness and linguistic culture.”
He recalled Tamil Nadu's consistent opposition to Hindi imposition, the massive agitations against this imposition in 1965 in the state and former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's assurance that English would continue to be one of the official languages for as long as the non-Hindi speaking people wanted.
"Subsequently, the resolutions passed in 1968 and 1976 on official languages, and according to the rules laid down thereunder, ensured the use of both English and Hindi in union government services, Stalin said adding that, “This position must continue to remain the cornerstone of all discussions on official language.”
Stalin also said that the attempts to impose Hindi were “impractical and divisive in character and put non-Hindi speaking people in a very disadvantageous position in many respects, further saying in his letter that “This will unacceptable not only to Tamil Nadu but also to any state that respects and values their mother tongue.
Earlier on October 10, Stalin had appealed to Modi to give up attempts to “make Hindi mandatory” and uphold the nation's unity. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had also taken exception to the panel's recommendation.
On Saturday, the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam's (DMK) Youth Wing Secretary and MLA for Chepauk-Triplicane, Udayanidhi Stalin warned the Centre that his party would stage a protest against it in Delhi if Hindi was thrust upon Tamil Nadu.