The freedom of choice of the medium of instruction in colleges in Tamil Nadu, recommended by a committee of experts and accepted by the State Government, is a victory for good sense. The students and parents have won the first round of their battle to safeguard their careers and intellectual interests. But they have had to pay a heavy price for what should never have become a matter for controversy or governmental interference. And for aught one knows, the price to pay might have been far heavier than the valuable study hours lost on the eve of examinations and the bones of some students broken but for the intervention of the mid-term elections. Having worked itself into an untenable position and faced with mounting popular opposition, the Government set up the experts committee. And it resorted to the classic device of a committee not only to gain some time during which roused tempers could cool but also to enable it to reverse the gear before the issue messed up the electoral prospects of the D.M.K. It is reasonable to expect that most of the thousands of Tamil medium places in the P.U.C. and degree classes will have to be converted into English medium ones if the “opportunity” to choose the medium is made available fully and without any mental reservations.
