CHENNAI: Whichever be the forces inimical to Tamil language and Tamil Nadu should be defeated in political as well as electoral arenas,” said DMK president and Chief Minister MK Stalin today. He was addressing a public meeting at Thiruvallur on the occasion of Veera Vanakka Naal to pay homage to language martyrs of anti-Hindi agitations in the past.
“Efforts to eliminate Tamil by imposing Hindi; raking up a controversy by saying this state should not be called as Tamil Nadu; and destabilising the autonomy of the states by snatching away its rights—these are the worst kind of cultural invasions that have been waged against TN for a long time, and we have been fighting back. The anti-Tamil forces should understand this and correct themselves, at least now. Otherwise, they will be corrected by the people,” the CM warned.
Stalin also said none should cheat the people of TN just by greeting them in Tamil and quoting Tirukkural and poems of poet Subramania Bharathi. Levelling charges against the previous AIADMK regime on many counts, he said: “The people of Tamil Nadu will not forget the past, and that was why they taught a befitting lesson to the AIADMK in the 2021 Assembly elections. The people are ready to repeat that lesson in the ensuing by-election to the Erode East Assembly constituency and the Lok Sabha elections next year.”“For those who address (us) as ‘varisugal’, I say this: Yes, we are ‘varisugal’ for the ideologies and principles of our leaders.”
Referring to the achievements of the DMK government since May last year, he said there are a few more electoral promises yet to be fulfilled. “They will be fulfilled because Muthuvel Karunanidhi Stalin made them.” Referring to the continued efforts of the BJP-led Centre to promote Sanskrit and Hindi, Stalin said:
“We are not enemies of any language. One can learn as many languages as they want to. But, we will not accept any language if it is imposed with a motive to dominate us.” He also charged that the BJP government had been openly imposing Hindi on non-Hindi states. It celebrated Hindi Diwas but did not have similar days for other languages.