CHENNAI: DMK President M K Stalin on Friday lashed out at the BJP-led NDA's new National Education Policy (NEP), saying the Centre was "imposing" the reforms that were "against states' rights, social justice and pluralism."
The Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Assembly also sought to know the ruling AIADMK's stand, particularly on the three-language policy, pointing out that the state has for long favoured only two languages.
"The new education policy, being imposed by the BJP government, is against states' rights, social justice, India's pluralism and will push future of youth into darkness," he said in statement here.
He recalled that DMK and other opposition parties opposed NEP, but charged the K Palaniswami-led AIADMK government of being "silent" on the matter.
Stalin particularly singled out the three-language formula proposed as part of the reforms, saying it went against Tamil Nadu's two-language system propounded by the DMK founder and late Chief Minister C N Annadurai, who heralded the first non-Congress government in Tamil Nadu post-independence in 1967.
The two-language formula, comprising Tamil and English, had proven to be effective for long and Anna had said "there is no place for the dominance of Hindi," Stalin said.
The Centre was now trying to "impose" Hindi and Sanskrit through NEP, he charged and questioned what was the stand of the AIADMK on the matter.
He said AIADMK's late chief ministers, M G Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa had never allowed "the domination of Hindi" and asked if the current dispensation had chosen to "betray them."
Incidentally, school education minister K A Sengottaiyan had on Thursday said the Tamil Nadu government will respond to the NEP after a detailed discussion with Palaniswami on August 3.