About 500 DMK cadres, including Leader of the Opposition in Puducherry Assembly R. Siva and three party MLAs, were arrested on Monday after they laid siege to the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (Jipmer) here demanding the administration to rescind the circular insisting that entries in all registers/service books would be made “as far as possible only in Hindi”.
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The protesters led by Mr. Siva, MLAs — Annibal Kenndy, R. Senthil Kumar, L. Sambath — and senior leader S.P. Sivakumar laid siege to the main entrance and raised slogans against the move. The police moved in and arrested them.
Talking to reporters, Mr. Siva said the Central government was trying to impose Hindi on the people of Puducherry, and the Jipmer administration should withdraw the circular immediately.
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“It is really disheartening that Puducherry Chief Minister N. Rangasamy was keeping quiet on the issue and the circular is utterly harmful. The Chief Minister should make his stand clear on the issue,” he said.
Mr. Siva said the DMK would not be cowed down by police action and the move would be opposed tooth and nail. He also dubbed Jipmer as having become a haven of the RSS and said that the present move by Jipmer to impose Hindi would never meet with success.
Meanwhile, Pradesh Congress Committee president A.V. Subramaniam also took strong exception to the circular issued by Jipmer. Terming the circular divisive, Mr. Subramaniam said the ruling BJP at the Centre was doing a disservice with their uncompromising pursuit to impose Hindi.
This decision would not only affect thousands of people who visited the institution daily for treatment but also employees attached to the institution. Contending that even the Mughals who had ruled the country for over 800 years had never attempted to impose the Urdu language during their long reign, Mr. Subramaniam said the BJP-led government at the Centre was attempting to impose Hindi on citizens realising that the party would not win the 2024 MP elections.
Puducherry Member of Parliament V. Vaithilingam also slammed the move and said the Jipmer was now moving away from its primary objective of providing quality treatment and had now taken up the imposition of Hindi as its core task. “This is highly objectionable and the administration should give up its move,” he said.