CHENNAI: BJP vice president Narayanan Thirupathy on Tuesday alleged that Chief Minister MK Stalin is trying to instigate people’s sentiments by playing linguistic politics. Thirupathy said Stalin’s criticism of the Parliamentary Committee’s recommendation on using Hindi as the medium of instruction in Central educational institutions is based on wrong information.
In a statement here, Thirupathy said the committee only recommended that Hindi be the medium of instruction in IITs, IIMs and Central universities in Hindi-speaking States, and regional languages be made the medium of instruction in other parts of the country. “So, it recommended that Tamil be the medium of instruction in Central educational institutions in Tamil Nadu. Why should Stalin oppose this?” he asked.
On Stalin’s charge that making Hindi mandatory would force another language war on Tamils, Thirupathy asked: “Is making Tamil a medium of instruction not feasible in TN? The panel recommended that regional languages be made the medium of instruction in non-Hindi-speaking States. This is aimed at treating all languages equally. Is that a crime?”
Thirupathy also clarified that the committee did not recommend making Hindi the common language for the entire country. He also denied as wrong the chief minister’s criticism of the recommendation to remove English as one of the languages in the recruitment for Central services.