Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin condemned the Union government’s criticism of Tamil Nadu and Periyar, accusing them of calling the state “uncivilized.” In a strong statement on Thursday, Stalin emphasized that the people of Tamil Nadu would soon give a “befitting reply” to such remarks.
Stalin’s comments came in response to remarks by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who recently made critical statements about the state and its leaders in Parliament. Sitharaman, in particular, had accused the ruling DMK of idolizing a figure who once dismissed Tamil as a “barbaric” language, though she did not directly name Periyar, the key figure behind the Dravidian movement.
In a social media post, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) president Vijay questioned Sitharaman’s alleged displeasure over Periyar’s comments, asking why the government was not imposing the trilingual policy on Tamil Nadu if that was the case.
As the political row over the Centre’s three-language policy deepens, State Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan argued that the policy could not be implemented due to lack of funding and infrastructure, dismissing the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020 as impractical for diverse educational levels. Thiagarajan also noted that similar language policies had failed in other Hindi-speaking states in the past.
In response, BJP Tamil Nadu President K Annamalai criticized Thiagarajan for opposing the policy despite sending his children to study foreign languages. He defended the three-language policy, stating it would give government school students the opportunity to learn a third Indian language or a foreign language.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin had earlier criticized the NEP, calling it a “saffronized policy” aimed at promoting Hindi over regional languages like Tamil. The central government, however, insists that the NEP is designed to encourage multilingualism and flexibility in language education, with states given the freedom to choose their own languages.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan also responded to the criticism, accusing the DMK government of using the language issue as a diversion from their governance shortcomings, and reaffirming that the policy allows states the autonomy to decide their language preferences.
