Andhra Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister and film star Pawan Kalyan, making a U-turn on Hindi after teaming up with the BJP, has invited the ire and ridicule of politicians and celebrities as well as netizens opposed to three-language formula of the BJP-led Union Government’s New Education Policy.
DMK Parliamentary Party Leader Kanimozi and activist film actor Prakash Raj have slammed him for his change of stance after teaming up with the saffron party.
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While Kanimozhi posted his ‘Go Back Hindi’ stance a decade earlier, when he had condemned the Modi Government for imposing Hindi and discriminating against other Indian languages, Prakash Raj accused him of batting for Hindi hegemony at the cost of many state languages.
The film star-turned neta, Pawan Kalyan, while addressing the 12th foundation day of his Jana Sena Party (JSP) at Pithapuram in Kakinada district late on Friday, had made a veiled criticism of the DMK for opposing the three-language policy, saying that the country needed more than two languages in order to preserve linguistic plurality and diversity.
“We must embrace linguistic diversity – not only two to maintain national integrity and to foster unity among the people,” he said and in a veiled dig at the DMK, accused the Dravidian major of being hypocritical on the language issue.
“While allowing Tamil movies to be dubbed in Hindi for financial gain, Tamil Nadu politicians oppose Hindi. They want the money from Bollywood but resist Hindi. What sort of logic is it?” he had asked.
Reminding of his changing colours according to convenience, Kanimozhi simply posted his views made a decade earlier when he took cudgels against the Modi Government’s move to impose Hindi.
In her post on X, she shared the images with the caption ‘Before BJP and After BJP’ to drive home the point that the JSP president is not consistent in his stand.
Prakash Raj, making it clear that opposing Hindi imposition is not about hating a language, as it is about protecting one’s mother tongue and cultural identity.
“Don’t impose your Hindi language on us. It is not about hating another language; it is about protecting our mother tongue and our cultural identity with self-respect,” he wrote on X, adding “Someone, please explain this to Pawan Kalyan garu.”