Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislative party leader Nainar Nagendran has said that the party would not allow the imposition of Hindi in the state. In a statement, he said that there was no need to learn a language under any compulsion to prove that he was an Indian.
The BJP leader said that the party would oppose any forceful imposition of Hindi in Tamil Nadu.
BJP state president K Annamalai had also on Tuesday, 12 April, said that the state BJP would not allow the imposition of Hindi language on the people of the state.
Both the leaders were responding after severe criticism had erupted in Tamil Nadu over the statement of Union Minister Amit Shah that Hindi should replace English as the link language among the states.
Hindi Made an Optional Language by PM: Nagendran
Nainar Nagendran said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not approved the draft of the National Educational Policy (NEP) that had Hindi as the main language.
The BJP legislative party leader said that the prime minister had given the go-ahead to the NEP only after Hindi was made an optional language.
The BJP Tamil Nadu unit president has lashed out against the Congress and said that the party had politicised the issue for the past 40-45 years and added that P Chidambaram as Union minister had stressed the need to give importance to Hindi language during a function at Hindi Diwas during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)-II regime.
He said that the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam was part and parcel of the UPA government and had the ministers representing the party when Chidambaram as Union minister had mooted the idea to give importance to the Hindi language.
'Tamil Could Be the Link Language': K Annamalai
Annamalai had also welcomed the suggestion of musician AR Rahman that Tamil could be the link language of the nation and added that stress must be given to develop the language.
The BJP state president had said that no efforts have been made in Tamil Nadu to develop that language and added that the number of students taking the Class 12 board exam in Tamil medium was coming down drastically and said that soon it will fall below 50 percent.
K Annamalai had on Tuesday called upon Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin to write letters to all the chief ministers asking them to teach Tamil in at least 10 schools in that state and provide the necessary funds for the project.
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