Autonomy is a prerequisite to secure the rights of the states and for protecting the Tamil language, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said on Tuesday and informed the Assembly that an announcement in this regard would be made soon.
Responding to a special calling attention on the two-language policy in the House, the chief minister ruled out any review or rethink of the two-language policy of Tamil and English. Describing it as the guiding principle and vision, he said the state government would forgo the funds from the Union Government to uphold the language policy.
Advertisement
“It was Tamil and English that have put the state on the world map for over half a century. No matter the amount of criticism aimed at us, we will not compromise on this vital principle; we will not abandon it. Even if the Centre gives Rs 10,000 crore, we won’t submit to the three-language formula. For, we are not slaves and this is not about money but concerns our distinctive ethnic identity and the future of our younger generations,” he said.
Participating in the debate, parties cutting across the political spectrum, barring the BJP, demanded that the two-language policy in vogue since 1968 should not be tampered with. Legislators from VCK and the PMK as well as Congress opposed any move to introduce the three-language formula of the New Education Policy.
Meanwhile, DMK Parliamentary party leader Kanimozhi, MP, posting on ‘X’ the Union Education Ministry’s response to her query, said there is no teacher for Tamil in all the Kendriya Vidyalayas in Tamil Nadu while for Hindi it is 86 for Hindi and 65 for Sanskrit. “Whose mother tongue are you teaching in Kendriya Vidyalayas and whose mother tongue are you teaching? Has Sanskrit and Hindi been enshrined as national languages in the Constitution or is this the nationalism that the BJP strives to construct?” she asked, adding that DMK has been opposing this imposition of Sanskrit and Hindi in the guise of a three-language formula.
