National general secretary of Rashtriya Lok Dal, Anil Dubey, has asked the Samajwadi Party and Congress, the main components of the INDIA bloc, to clarify their stance on the opposition to the New Education Policy 2020 by DMK.

Talking to reporters in Lucknow on Friday, he said that DMK is engaging in petty politics by opposing the three-language formula in Tamil Nadu, and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and his government are falsely accusing the imposition of Hindi in Tamil Nadu.

“Stalin says that he is in favour of being multilingual, but making Hindi compulsory in the state is not acceptable to his government,” Dubey said.

Dubey further said that in 1968, during the time of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, a three-language formula was introduced, under which it was decided that Hindi, English, and a regional language would be taught in all the states.

“Even at that time, this formula was not implemented in Tamil Nadu; only Tamil and English were implemented. This formula was also adopted in 1986, but the Tamil Nadu government opposed it. The Tamil Nadu government is opposing national unity by opposing this formula. In 2020, a new education policy was introduced, which stated that the formula of Hindi, English, and a regional language should be implemented in the state, and no language will be forcibly imposed. With the aim of strengthening national unity, the Central government is working to encourage the Hindi language in non-Hindi-speaking states so that national unity can be made more powerful and strong, but the chief minister of Tamil Nadu and his government are opposing it,” Dubey countered.

He said that instead of rising above narrow thinking about language, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu and his ministers are opposing this formula due to political interests, and they have a long history of opposing it.

During the freedom struggle in 1918, Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi had established the Hindi Prachar Sabha in South India, Dubey recalled, nothing that the Tamil Nadu government is weakening national unity and integrity by stopping the teaching of Hindi because it feels that the implementation of the three-language formula will change the colour of politics and the level of education will not improve, so it is opposing it.

“Similarly, the new education policy is working towards saving regional Indian languages, including Hindi and English, but the people of the country want to know why the main components of the INDI alliance, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, are silent on this.

“Their silence is an injustice to the honour of Hindi, and it is clear from this that SP and Congress are seeing Hindi language being continuously insulted for their political interests,” he added.

Meanwhile, national secretary of Rashtriya Lok Dal Anupam Mishra said Hindi is, language-wise, the soul of India.

Mishra said Stalin, in view of the new education policy, was aiming at fulfilling his political ambitions by stirring up the language row.

“Stalin is least bothered about the unity and integrity of our country,” he added.

Mishra said that in India, over 52 crore people speak Hindi, and in this way, Hindi may be termed as the soul of our country, language-wise. “Hindi is the most written, spoken, and understood language in our country,” he added.