The ruling DMK has announced a State-wide agitation in Tamil Nadu on October 15, 2022, condemning the alleged imposition of Hindi and the introduction of a nation-level common entrance test for all courses by the Union government.
In a joint statement issued along with the party’s student wing secretary, DMK youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin and son of chief minister MK Stalin announced that the party would hold agitations in all district headquarters urging the Union government to drop the attempt to impose Hindi through Official Languages Act and conduct of a national-level common entrance test for all courses.
The agitation will be organised in all districts at 9 am on Saturday, October 15, the announcement said, describing the National Education Policy as another ploy to impose Hindi as the only language of the country after destroying the plurality of the multi-linguistic country where everyone’s language rights should be protected.
Stating that the youth and student’s wing strongly condemns the imposition of Hindi, Udhayanidhi referred to the recent statement of the Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Rajkumar Ranjan Singh proposing a common entrance test for all courses at the national-level and said that the scheme of conducting of a common test by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for all courses in all colleges in all states was contrary to the Constitution and principles of social justice besides snatching away the rights of the states.
In recent weeks, several parties in Tamil Nadu have been critical of what they called attempts by the Union government to impose Hindi on the people.