Chennai, March 2 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK President M.K. Stalin on Sunday expressed support for a protest by a section of the Tamil diaspora in the US against the Centre’s three-language policy.

He shared a news report and video clip of the protest on X. The protest took place in Dallas, US, where a group of Tamils voiced their opposition to the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, particularly its push for a three-language system which includes Hindi.

Protesters accused the BJP-led Centre of attempting to impose Hindi on Tamil Nadu, undermining the state’s long-standing two-language policy.

The issue has deepened the ongoing political and ideological standoff between the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu and the BJP-led Centre.

The dispute intensified after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan stated that funds under the Samagra Shiksha scheme would not be released unless Tamil Nadu implemented the NEP and the three-language policy. This statement triggered a strong reaction from DMK leaders, their allies, and even BJP-friendly parties like PMK, which have opposed both the NEP and the three-language policy.

CM Stalin recently warned that implementing NEP would set Tamil Nadu back by 2,000 years. He asserted that the state would not accept the policy even if the Union government offered Rs 10,000 crore. He also criticised the Union Education Minister for trying to impose Hindi through the NEP, vowing to protect Tamil identity at all costs.

The CM also highlighted what he called a discriminatory allocation of funds for language development. He pointed out that while Tamil is spoken by eight crore people, the Union government has allocated only Rs 74 crore for its development. But Rs 1,488 crore has been allotted for Sanskrit, which is spoken by only a few thousand people.

The Tamil Nadu government has consistently opposed the NEP and the three-language policy, favoring its two-language system: Tamil and English.

Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin has also reiterated that Tamil Nadu will not shift from its stance.

Opposition to the three-language policy is not limited to the ruling DMK. Even the principal opposition party, AIADMK, has backed the state’s two-language policy.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, however, accused CM Stalin of misrepresenting the NEP to sustain a political narrative. He urged the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister to rise above political differences and consider the interests of students who would benefit from the NEP.

Pradhan’s remarks were in response to a letter CM Stalin sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently, in which he objected to linking Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) funds with the PM SHRI Schools scheme.

CM Stalin argued that these are distinct centrally sponsored programmes, and linking them is unfair.

In his letter, CM Stalin urged Prime Minister Modi to immediately release Rs 2,152 crore in Samagra Shiksha funds for Tamil Nadu without linking them to the NEP. He accused the Union government of using financial allocations as leverage to force states into compliance, calling it a violation of cooperative federalism.

–IANS

aal/dpb