Tamil Nadu Govt counters Governor’s view on language policy

Chennai: Two days after Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi batted for a three-language policy in his Republic Day address, the State Government on Thursday countered his views and reiterated it would stick to the two-language policy.

Following the strong anti-Hindi imposition agitation that shook the State and led to the removal of the Congress Government in 1967, the first DMK Government under C N Annadurai had declared that Tamil Nadu will adopt the two-language policy wherein only Tamil and English would be taught in its schools.

In his Republic Day address, Governor Ravi had argued it was important for school students in Tamil Nadu to learn other Indian languages like their counterparts in some other States. He felt “depriving our students of knowledge of other Indian languages was unfair to all.”

Strongly countering this, Minister for Tamil Official Language and Culture, Thangam Thennarasu, in a statement said there will be no change in the State’s language policy. “Those who are aware of the history of protests for language in Tamil Nadu would realise ‘other Indian languages’ is only another terminology for pushing Hindi,” the Minister said and reminded of Annadurai’s assurance on the two-language policy.

“I hope the Governor would realise that the two-language policy has not affected students from Tamil Nadu in any way from acquiring educational qualifications or holding major positions,” he said in a statement.

The Minister also urged the Governor to forward a Bill seeking exemption from NEET based admissions for undergraduate medical degree curses to the President for assent. The Bill is pending with the Raj Bhavan since September last.