Ahead of its tabling on March 14, the Tamil Nadu government has replaced the Indian rupee symbol '₹' with the Tamil letter 'ரூ' (pronounced as Ru) in the official logo of its 2025-26 state budget.
The decision, made under the leadership of Chief Minister MK Stalin, comes amid the ongoing debate over language policies and the state's opposition to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
It is customary to mention 'ரூபாய்' (Rupee in Tamil) or ரூ (Ru) in the Tamil version of budget speeches and related documents.
This year’s Economic Survey highlights this practice by prefixing monetary figures with ரூ in the Tamil version. However, the English version of the Economic Survey still retains the ₹ symbol while mentioning figures. Other budget documents are yet to be made available.
While the Tamil Nadu government has yet to issue an official statement on the matter, the BJP intensified its attack on the DMK government.
BJP spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy told NDTV that the move reflects the Tamil party's stance of being "different from India," adding that the rupee symbol is widely recognized as a national emblem.
Meanwhile, DMK leader Saravanan Annadurai told a news outlet, "There is nothing illegal about it... this is not a 'showdown'. We prioritize Tamil... that is why the government went ahead with this."
Reacting to the controversy, Tamil Nadu BJP president Annamalai took to X, criticisng the move.
In his post, he wrote, "The DMK Government's State Budget for 2025-26 replaces the Rupee Symbol designed by a Tamilian, which was adopted by the whole of Bharat and incorporated into our currency. Thiru Udhay Kumar, who designed the symbol, is the son of a former DMK MLA. How stupid can you become, Thiru M.K. Stalin?"
Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and former Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan also lashed out at the DMK, calling the swap “against the Constitution” and accusing the party of working “against the national interest.”
"They have ruled Tamil Nadu for so many years and have presented the budget multiple times; why dramatize it now? When they were in power at the Centre, why didn’t they make this decision then?" she questioned.
She further argued that national symbols must be respected in a federal setup, adding, "This does not mean we are against Tamil symbols or the Tamil language. I even have a Tamil name, whereas MK Stalin does not. Instead of developing Tamil, they should focus on developing Tamil Nadu."
Soundararajan also mocked Stalin, challenging him to change his own name to a Tamil alternative if he was serious about promoting the language.
Earlier on Wednesday, MK Stalin launched a scathing attack on the central government, labelling the National Education Policy (NEP) as a "saffronise policy" aimed at promoting Hindi rather than developing India, alleging that the policy threatens to destroy Tamil Nadu's education system.
"National Education Policy is not education policy, it is saffronise policy. The policy was not created to develop India but to develop Hindi. We are opposing the Policy as that would destroy the Tamil Nadu education system completely," CM Stalin said in Tiruvallur.
Stalin accused the central government of withholding funds to coerce the state into accepting the NEP.
"We are asking for your tax share, which we paid with our efforts. What is the problem with this? Is it fair to threaten without releasing funds for the welfare of 43 lakh schools? As we didn't accept NEP, they are refusing to release funds that belong to Tamil Nadu. We would have welcomed the scheme if it brought everyone into education. But is NEP like that? NEP has all the factors that remove people from education. This is how this policy is, and that's why we are opposing it," he added.
At the heart of the controversy is the NEP's three-language formula, which Tamil Nadu fears will impose Hindi on the state. Stalin argued that the policy prioritizes Hindi over regional languages, undermining the state's autonomy and linguistic diversity.
(With inputs from Agencies)