CHENNAI: Charging that the Union government is “imposing Hindi down our throats,” Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday demanded that the New India Assurance Company (NIAC) immediately withdraw its circular aimed at forcing Hindi on routine works of the multinational general insurance company.
In a lengthy tweet, Stalin said NIAC chairperson Neerja Kapur should apologise for the disrespect shown to non-Hindi speakers of India and non-Hindi speaking employees of the firm by issuing such an “unjust” circular.
“While every citizen of India is contributing to its development, the Union government and its institutions continue to give an undue and unfair advantage to Hindi over other languages in every possible way. The Centre is also bent upon spending its valuable resources on imposing Hindi down our throats, rather than for public welfare,” Stalin said.
Incidentally, Stalin levelled this charge a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah explained in detail how the Union government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been honouring the Tamil language, its literature and culture in all possible ways.
Gone are the days of non-Hindi speaking citizens of India tolerating “second-class treatment” meted out to them, Stalin said, adding that such attempts continue despite people’s contribution to propel India’s growth with their hard work and talent.
“Tamil Nadu and the DMK will do everything under our power to stop Hindi imposition, as we have always strived in our history. We will remove the undeserving special status Hindi enjoys everywhere in Union government entities like railways, postal department, banking and Parliament which affects our people on a day-to-day basis,” Stalin said.
“We pay our taxes, contribute to the progress of the country and believe in our rich heritage and the nation’s diversity. Our languages deserve to be treated equally. We will resist any attempt to replace Tamil with Hindi in our land,” he said.
The circular dated April 3 said NIAC employees should be encouraged to do work in Hindi to participate in the cash incentive scheme. Publication of an in-house magazine of each region regularly, organising Hindi workshops for employees, conducting official language inspections, usage of standard Hindi letters in day-to-day work and ensuring 100% compliance with Section (3(3) of the Official Languages Act,1963 are some of the directives given in the circular.
The circular also said all letterheads/name plates/rubber stamps/ titles of files and registers should be bilingual and entries should be in Hindi, entries in the attendance register and dispatch register should be done in Hindi. Office records should be maintained in Hindi. All displayed name plates should be in Hindi/bilingual. The circular also told NIAC officials to increase the use of Hindi in all administrative work.
Meanwhile, PMK founder S Ramadoss described the NIAC circular as an open attempt to impose Hindi and this is tantamount to insulting languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. The Centre should direct the NIAC to withdraw its circular immediately.