CHENNAI: The ‘anti-Hindi and anti-Sanskrit imposition’ conference, one of the twin conferences organised by the Dravidar Kazhagam on Friday, saw the coming together of political party leaders and academics to emphasise the urgent need to resist the imposition of Hindi and Sanskrit in Tamil Nadu and other States.
The DMK working president M K Stalin, speaking at the conference, said that the BJP has been responsible for a slew of measures to impose Hindi on non-Hindi speaking States including Tamil Nadu. “Calling teacher’s day ‘Guru utsav’ celebrating Sanskrit week, cancelling Pongal holidays for central government staff, the newly circulated `2,000 and `500 notes carrying the Devanagari script, Hindi notifications in Chennai Metro Rail are all BJP’s attempts to enslave us,” he said.
The meeting urged the Centre to bring in an amendment to make all languages including Tamil enlisted in the Eighth Schedule official languages.
Said VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan, “Imposing Hindi would enable BJP to take the reins of States like Tamil Nadu easily. Saffronisation and Sanskritisation are its main agenda. If it had not been for Periyar, we might have all been Hindi speakers today. How could I have spoken about Tamil nationalism and feel so passionately about it if that had been the case,” he said.
The party leaders and academics at the meet held the BJP responsible for pushing Hindi to the forefront which they believed was the first step towards imposing Sanskrit in its place, then followed by the imposition of the party’s own ideologies. CPI (M) state secretary G. Ramakrishnan said, “The one religion, one culture, one language agenda of the BJP reveals its fascist nature of Governance.”
Dravida Tamizhar Peravai leader Suba Veerapandian said that with Chief Ministers of States like Karnataka voicing their opposition to the imposition of Hindi, Periyar’s voice has resonated not only in Tamil Nadu but across the country. Senior CPI leader Tha. Pandian, DK president K Veeramani, vice-president of DK Kali.
Poongundran, Indian Union Muslim League president Khader Mohideen, Deepak Pawar, professor, University of Mumbai, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee spokesperson Hidayathulla were also part of the conference. A resolution passed urged the government to take a strong stand in protecting the interests of tn in connection with the inter-state river water sharing row. Ruing the step-motherly attitude of the Centre in dealing with Keezhadi excavations, another resolution sought the government to adopt a transparent approach to the issue.
Expressing anguish over the imposition of NEET and the stand taken by the Centre, State and the apex court, the meet urged that education be restored to the State list and the States must be allowed to evolve their own guidelines for admission to professional courses.