CHENNAI: BJP state president K. Annamalai said on Thursday that any entrance examination in India could be held only as per the Schedule Eight of the Constitution and that only the languages listed in that schedule were the official languages even as the DMK’s youth and students’ wings had called for a state-wide protest against ‘Hindi imposition’.
Speaking to media persons at the airport, on his arrival from the US, Annamalai said that if candidates in Tamil Nadu were forced to write any examination in Hindi, the state BJP would not accept it and urged the DMK to administer the state for the benefit of the people and not to play needless politics.
The remarks on the language issue by Annamalai comes in the wake of the clarion call given by the DMK’s youth wing secretary Udhaynidhi Stalin for a joint agitation by the youth and student wings on Saturday, October 15, to protest against Hindi imposition in the state.
Udhayanidhi Stalin, in a statement, had alleged that there was a bid to thrust Hindi on the people of the state which was evident through the report submitted by the Union home minister-led Parliamentary committee recommending Hindi as medium of instruction in top institutions like the IITs, IIMs and AIIMs.
The DMK’s youth wing secretary also questioned the need for conducting a single entrance test for all educational boards in the country, as suggested by the Union minister of state for education Rajkumar Ranjan Singh. He said it was the RSS idea of one nation, one language, one religion and one culture that was in play and said that it would destroy the plurality of the country.
Perhaps, it was in a bid to take the wind out of the DMK’s sail on the Hindi imposition issue that Annamalai came out with his statement that the state BJP would not support any examination in Hindi in Tamil Nadu.
Udhayanidhi Stalin, who had categorically stated that the committee headed by Amit Shah had also recommended that examinations for recruiting people for jobs in the Union Government be held in Hindi, alleged that such a move would force people to learn Hindi and also deprive youth from non-Hindi speaking states jobs in the Union government.
Such an entrance examination would be an injustice to the poor and downtrodden who had been denied their rights to employment and agitate against the principles of equality and equal opportunities, Udhayanidhi Stalin said.
The DMK is also making efforts to make the October 15 protest a success and the clarion call for it has been given by the party’s Youth Wing secretary. The party’s students’ wing secretary C V M P Ezhilarasan has also been roped in for the protest that could turn out to be a major event, drawing the attention of the Union Government.
It is in this context that Annamalai had made remarks to the effect that the Union government had no plans of imposing Hindi. He said that the BJP government had only analysed the Hindi language policy adopted since the time of Congress rule.
It had only categorised States on the basis of Hindi usage. Those using Hindi fully had been categorised as A, while those partly using the language had been placed under category B and those not using the language at all as C. Tamil Nadu had come third in the C category, he said.
So though Annamalai had said that Chief Minister M.K. Stalin was afraid of the growth of BJP in the State, his position on the language issue that is diametrically opposite to the avowed principle of his party at the national level only points to the fears that have gripped him over the possibility of the DMK gaining political mileage through the agitation.
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