CHENNAI: A delegate from the US by the name Karunanidhi who called himself as a ‘global citizen’ created ripples in the Tamil Diaspora Day celebrations and the person engaged in a wordy duel with IT Minister Palanivel Thiga Rajan (PTR) over the CBSE system of education.
During the discussion titled ‘Blossoming future and challenges,’ a delegate said, “Poet Bharathi said one should go in all directions to earn money and to achieve this, one should learn all languages. Here there are talks that Hindi and Sanskrit are being imposed. You are finding fault with the centre. I agree with you. But why can’t you implement the CBSE syllabus in the interest of students so that they can learn many languages?”
To this, PTR said he did not understand what was the question of the delegate. The delegate said our government is preventing students from learning many languages. Responding, PTR said “CBSE syllabus is implemented by the central board. The Government of Tamil Nadu, irrespective of the party in power, has an educational system that implements the zone board.”
Having said that PTR asked “What country do you live in?” The delegate said, “I live in the world.”
To this, PTR said, “The world is not ephemeral. What country do you live in?” At this juncture, even as other delegates started expressing their dissatisfaction over the behaviour of this delegate, he said “It is undemocratic. I am also a Dravidian and my name is Karunanidhi. I am a global citizen.”
To this, PTR said “So what, you have to live somewhere, right? If he is ashamed of naming the country where he lives I will: He lives in Chicago in the state of Illinois in the US. In Chicago, the school education syllabus is devised by the school board of the city. Why does he live in a place where the city sets the school board? He is coming and telling us that we have to listen to CBSE education.”
Another panellist said, “In this age of Artificial Intelligence, we don’t need to learn every single language. The technology we have now can easily translate from one language to another in real-time.” Thus, the issue came to an end. Earlier in the day, inaugurating the celebrations, Minister for Youth Welfare and Sports Development, Udhayanidhi Stalin explained the measures being taken by the government for non-resident Tamils.