Taking a strong stance against the imposition of Hindi, senior AIADMK leader and Minister for Personnel and Administrative Reforms D. Jayakumar on Tuesday said the imposition of any language on a State was against the principles of federalism.
When asked about the Centre’s recent proposal to make it mandatory for students to learn at least one classical language, Mr. Jayakumar said the State government will give its feedback on the issue to the Centre.
“Our elders [a reference to Dravidian stalwarts] had followed a two-language policy — Tamil and English — with Tamil for Tamil Nadu and English being the link language. This alone should continue. Hindi should not be imposed,” he said.
“Imposing a language in a federal set-up will be considered as an act against the principles of federalism. The Centre is also aware of this,” Mr. Jayakumar said, and went on to cite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘love’ for the ancient language of Tamil.
Mr. Jayakumar also lauded President Ram Nath Kovind for quoting from Tamil works in his speeches, Union Home Minister Amit Shah for trying to speak in Tamil during his recent visit to Chennai and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for having quoted from ancient Tamil literature during her Budget speech. “The Centre has realised the ancient richness of Tamil. So, we hope that the Centre will not make the same mistake [imposing Hindi on Tamil Nadu] that the Congress made in 1967,” he added.
On reports that the Governor was not inclined to approve the State government’s proposal to release the seven life convicts in former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination case, he said the State government had not received any communication from the Governor on the issue so far.
