Nueva Delhi: Tamil Nadu’s protest for the retention of central funds for schemes under the right to education and the modi Govt link of these funds with the implementation of the states by the states, has revived the “linguistic war”. It is a complete confrontation between BJP and DMK for now, but there is a growing anxiety about whether it could force other players to take sides, which adds to the already volatile political mixture.
When CM MK Stalin wrote to PM Modi, demanding the release of RS 2,512 million rupees for RTE schemes, Center pointed out the non -implementation of NEP TN. Stalin returned, declaring that he would not agree with the “imposition of the Hindi” even for many more millions of rupees. The Minister of Education, Dharmendra Pradhan, reacted and told Stalin: “NEP 2020 defends the principle of linguistic freedom and ensures that students continue to learn in the language of their choice.”
The north-south dimension of the problem is pronounced. The southern states such as Karnataka and Kerala, and even others, are proud of their local languages and are receptive to the suggestions that the north is being imposed even more, this, after having cornered political power after independence. Stalin’s comments reflect DMK’s long data commitment with a two-year-old policy, tamil and English, rooted in the Dravidian spirit of the State and its historical resistance to Hindi that dates back to the anti-Hindi agitations of the 1930s and 1960s.
The attractiveness of language as a political weapon is evident. Since TN increased the bet, Punjab in the North and Telangana in the South has announced that Punjabi and Telugu, respectively, would be the main mandatory languages in schools.
The political advantage of this dispute has left the cautious protagonists. While BJP is excited about Hindi, he also realizes that he cannot strive to the local population in the south by reinforcing his image as the northern party of India. He is a key player in Karnataka’s bipolar policy, increasingly strong in Telangana, and is making an anxious impulse in TN, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh hoping to win the allies.
The tightrope walk for BJP was evident when his boss of T K Annamalai claimed that DMK was deliberately misunderstanding the NEP for political profits. ” He has emphasized the states of the South that the accusation of the DMK of the imposition of Hindi has no basis, since the three languages, which was first implemented under the governments of Congress, focuses on the promotion of all Indian languages, instead of a specific one.
Meanwhile, Congress has chosen to see the battle from the cost. Party officials argue in private that there is merit in DMK’s accusations, pointing out how the acronyms of the central schemes, and even the three new laws of IPC-CRPC (Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita) are Hindi castes, without equivalent in English. They call this new insensitive tendency to the feelings of the South, warning that it runs the risk of reviving the fears of “cultural imperialism.” They believe that the row, if it extends, could also touch a raw nerve in the northeast states.
However, the main opposition party is aware that it is a party in northern India and cannot take a position in which it is perceived as “Anti-Hindi.” This is the reason why AICC has adopted an annualized posture on the subject of the language. Many point to the historical disability with which national parties such as Congress, which must attend to all regions, are loaded, unlike regional parties, which can please very local feelings.
This paradox was more evident in the 1990s when the mascot of the Samajwadi Mulayam Singh Yadav party crossed the swords with the end of Net DMK MK Karunanidhi about the language problem, despite being allies in the center. The alliance along “secular vs. communal” lines persists even today, although since then SP has moderated its Hindi impulses by not joining the problem in recent years.
Despite persistent concerns, the sources of Congress affirmed that the risk of a setback is minimal, since language has not been an important problem in the north for many years. They believe that political planks in the next elections, such as Bihar and Kerala, will revolve around the census census, social justice and anti -incumbency, instead of language.
BJP will not make the tactical silence of the congress a big problem because it does not want its southern thrust to be injured. But at the base level, the refusal of Congress will stand out to distance themselves from Stalin in the same way that he talked about the antisanatan position of DMK and the deince of the Congress to disconnect from him.