The DMK will hold a State-wide protest on September 20 to condemn Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement that Hindi can unite the country, DMK president M.K. Stalin said following a high-level executive committee meeting at the party headquarters on Monday.
“The DMK will hold a massive protest against Amit Shah’s statement on Friday, September 20. As a first step, we have announced this. We will wait and see what the Centre’s reply is. Based on that, we will have discussions with parties that hold the same views as we do on this language issue, and decide on holding further protests with them,” Mr. Stalin told reporters after the meeting.
A party statement said the BJP-led Union government’s efforts to impose Hindi “with an attempt to turn India into a Hindi-speaking country is extremely worrying. That the Home Minister is propagating Hindi and is acting against languages including Tamil that are in the 8th Schedule is a danger to the foundations of these languages”.
“The government should give up its efforts to impose Hindi and instead concentrate on doing some useful work to take the country forward,” the party said.
Separately, in a tweet, Mr. Stalin questioned the silence of the investigative agencies on a bribery case relating to allocation of land to Cognizant. “The company has accepted their wrongdoing in the case and has agreed to pay a penalty. The U.S. has punished those who gave the bribe, but the Tamil Nadu Vigilance Department has not even filed an FIR against the corrupt officials and leaders who received the bribes. Are the Central and State governments encouraging such practices by keeping silent?” he asked.
