Refusing to be drawn into the controversy over Home Minister Amit Shah’s remarks advocating Hindi as India’s national language, Minister for Cooperation Sellur K. Raju said the AIADMK would remain firm in the two language policy advocated by late Chief Minister C. N. Annadurai.
If Mr. Shah had said that Hindi should be the national language and India could be unified with Hindi, it was his view. “But political parties had different views on language policy,” he said.
The AIADMK would not deviate from the two language policy and continue to pursue Tamil as main language and English as supportive language. It was advocated by Anna and was followed by subsequent Chief Ministers including Edappadi K Palaniswami, he said.
He defended the Centre’s ‘one nation one ration card’ policy stating it would provide inter-State portability and help the poor and migrant workers to buy essentials from fair price shops across the country.
“Under the policy, outsiders will have access to ration items, which are being supplied from the Central pool and home State card holders will not be affected. But Chief Minister is yet to give his consent for the policy,” he said.
Mr. Raju defended the proposal to hold public examinations for classes V and VIII students. It would help the students prepare for competitive examinations conducted at the national level.
Though Tamil Nadu topped the country with 46.9% gross enrolment ratio, the students could not fare well at national-level examinations.
On actors entry into politics, he said any actor could enter politics but none could capture power in the State.
He said DMK president M. K. Stalin had softened his stand towards the Centre after the arrest of Congress leader P. Chidambaram in a money laundering case.
