CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Saturday asked Union Telecommunications Minister A Raja to advise the Unicode Consortium to defer the proposal for including five Tamil characters in places meant for the Grantha code in the Unicode Standard until wider and in-depth deliberations are held among scholars and stakeholders.
In a letter to Raja, Karunanidhi pointed out that since the proposal had gone from the Central government to the Unicode Consortium, the minister should advise the Consortium to defer the proposal.
He also asked Raja to keep him informed of developments in this matter.
He said the Tamil Nadu government had decided to constitute a high-level committee to hold wider consultations and make recommendations on the proposal following the suggestions of Tamil scholars during a meeting convened by him on November 4.
Stating that the Ministry of Information Technology had sent a communication to the Unicode Consortium proposing to encode Indian heritage scripts (Vedic, Sanskrit and Grantha) in the Unicode Standard so that ancient knowledge could be represented via electronic media, Karunanidhi said the proposal had raised “considerable concerns” among the Tamil community around the world.
Eminent Tamil scholars were not consulted before submitting the proposal, he said.
“In particular, considerable reservations have been expressed about inclusion of five Tamil characters into the Grantha code places,” he added.