Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin told Hindi newspaper Dainik Jagran that the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in the state is not opposed to any particular language or religion. In an interview titled ‘Hamara na kisi bhasha se virodh hai na dharm se’ (DMK does not oppose any language nor religion) on Sunday, October 22, Stalin clarified Tamil Nadu’s stand on opposing imposition of Hindi and Sanatana dharma. Notably, as of 2019, Dainik Jagran is the most read daily newspaper in the country with an average issue readership of 17,496,000, according to the Indian Readership Survey (IRS).
Stalin’s interview is seen as an attempt to clarify the DMK’s ideologies and principles and reach out to the north Indian population. Sources told TNM that the interview was a conscious decision taken by the DMK to reach out to north Indian states after the Sanatana dharma controversy broke out. “There is an attempt by the BJP to portray the DMK in a bad light. BJP leaders have been twisting the statements of DMK leaders and giving it a communal spin. Instead of hearing it from the BJP, we decided to reach out to the north Indian population directly,” one of the sources said.
In his interview to Dainik Jagran, CM Stalin said that in an attempt to distract the public from the Rs 7.5 lakh crore corruption on the part of the BJP-led Union government that the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) exposed, the BJP IT wing created a row with TN Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin’s comment on Sanatana dharma. “The comment was to eliminate caste discrimination but it was twisted as though he meant to eliminate Hindu religion. Similarly, Udhayanidhi didn’t use the word ‘genocide’ in his speech,” the CM clarified.
When the interviewer pointed out that the other parties in the INDIA alliance had asked DMK leaders not to further stoke the Sanatana dharma row, the CM replied that the parties in the alliance were provided a detailed explanation about the row and their request was fulfilled.
Stalin further debunked the misunderstanding that Tamil Nadu is opposed to Hindi as a language and clarified that the state only opposes the imposition of Hindi. He further advocated for all other states to preserve their respective languages, which according to him are embedded in their respective cultures. “About 50 years ago, Anna himself had made the policy of Tamil-English bilingualism in Tamil Nadu. Today we are ahead in the educational development index and this is possible because there is no burden of a third language. We have gone beyond the target set in the New Education Policy (NEP) by the Union government. We are drafting a state specific NEP, which will do wonders in the state,” Stalin said.
Stalin’s interview to Dainik Jagran also comes at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been criticising the DMK in poll-bound states.