NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party chief K Annamalai on Thursday claimed that over one lakh people across the state have supported the BJP’s online campaign on the three-language policy. He added that his party would continue its outreach despite police action, questioning how many people the government could “illegally arrest.”
Annamalai also condemned the detention of former Telangana and Puducherry Governor and BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan in Chennai for conducting a public signature campaign, allegedly organised without obtaining permission.
The campaign, titled ‘Samakalvi Engal Urimai’ (Equal Education is Our Right), was launched by the Tamil Nadu BJP in support of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and its three-language formula.
In a post on X, he said, “While TN CM spends his day spreading Hallucinatory fears, @BJP4TamilNadu wishes to constructively engage with our people & break the disparity in education offered to Govt school students in TN. As we speak, over 1 Lakh people across TN have overwhelmingly supported the online signature campaign through http://puthiyakalvi.in. Our hardworking cadres & leaders have commenced the door-to-door campaign in every district today despite your efforts to stop them,” Annamalai said in a post on X.
This came in a response to the Tamil Nadu CM post accusing BJP leaders of questioning the patriotism of the DMK government, despite its contributions to national causes.
Stalin continuing his attack on Centre, said that demanding linguistic equality should not be considered chauvinism, adding, “Chauvinism is naming the three criminal laws that govern 140 crore citizens in a language that Tamils cannot even pronounce or comprehend by reading. Chauvinism is treating the state that contributes the most to the nation as second-class citizens and denying its fair share for refusing to swallow the poison called NEP.”
Having realised that the opposition to the three-language policy hasn’t yielded support from the common people, Thiru @mkstalin has now jumped to the imaginary Hindi imposition,” he added.
Annamalai claimed that in the matriculation schools run by Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin‘s party men have not even made Tamil a compulsory subject.
“In his response to Hon Minister Thiru @dpradhanbjp last September, your part-time school education minister said that Tamil Nadu is already implementing many aspects of NEP, and today, you call NEP a “Poison.” Do you really have any idea what is going on around you, Thiru @mkstalin?” he added.
Earlier, Stalin posted on 1967 Tamil language demonstrations and called upon the state to stand against what he described as Hindi imposition.
He also posted a photograph of former Chief Minister Annadurai alongside a message that highlighted the significance of the 1967 anti-Hindi movement in Tamil Nadu.
“1967: Anna sat down; Tamil Nadu rose! If any harm comes to proud Tamil Nadu, let us roar like wildfire! Let us celebrate the victory!” he wrote on the social media platform X, connecting historical events with present-day situations.
It is significant that the Tamil Nadu administration has expressed strong opposition to the implementation of the New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, expressing worries about the “three-language formula” whilst asserting that the Centre intends to ‘impose’ Hindi.