“In the 2024 Parliamentary Election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be wiped out of Coimbatore district,” said N. Karthik, Coimbatore Urban District Secretary of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Coimbatore on October 15.
Explained | The anti-Hindi imposition movements in India
The protest was held across Tamil Nadu. DMK youth wing secretary and MLA Udhayanidhi Stalin led a protest in Chennai.
Speaking at a protest organised by the Youth Wing and Students Wing of DMK in front of Coimbatore South Tahsildar Office, against the recommendation of a Parliamentary Panel headed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to make Hindi as a medium of instruction in central educational institutions, Mr. Karthik said, “By the concept of one nation, one religion, one language, the Union Government is trying to destroy the diversity of the country.”
He also said, “Whenever there was a threat to the State autonomy and Tamil language in the past, the DMK has opposed it vehemently, and it would continue to do so if the Union Government tried to impose Hindi.”
The DMK’s youth- and students wing staged a protest against alleged imposition of Hindi, in Vellore, on October 15, 2022. | Photo Credit: Venkatachalapathy C
Recalling the anti-Hindi agitations in the State in late 1930s and in 1965, former Minister Pongalur N. Palanisamy said, “The Union government is deceiving the States by not releasing sufficient funds. The idea of making Hindi as an official language mooted by Mr. Shah should be stopped at the preliminary level itself.”
Vaiko and Veeramani oppose ‘Hindi imposition’
Demonstrations were also staged at Thondamuthur and Pollachi in which DMK district secretaries led the protest. In Tiruppur district, the protest was led by Tiruppur South MLA K. Selvaraj in which DMK members raised slogans against the Union Government.
