The move by the Government of Tamil Nadu to introduce 300 hours long Hindi teaching programme in the State-owned International Institute of Tamil Studies for 66 students who came forward on their own to learn the language has drawn the ire of the Dravidian major, the DMK.
What has caused further embarrassment to the DMK leadership was a letter written by a school student from Sivaganga to party chief MK Stalin asking him why he was against Navodaya Vidyalayas and Hindi.
Thangam Thennarasu, DMK leader and a close confidante of Stalin has fired the first salvo by claiming that the move to teach Hindi was a regressive move. “This is an attempt by the AIADMK Government to destroy Tamil language and culture,” charged Thennarasu while speaking to reporters at Chennai.
But Ma Foi Pandiarajan, the minister for Tamil Development said the allegation by Thennarasu, himself a former minister of education, was without understanding ground realities. “Learning of the languages is optional. All students have agreed to join the course out of their own interest. The Government has allotted Rs 3 lakh each to hold Hindi and French classes in the Institute. We will have 300 hours of Hindi and another 300 hours of French classes,” said Pandiarajan. The minister also said that the courses would facilitate comparative learning of literature , besides opening the window of job opportunities in the country and abroad.
Meanwhile more and more students , civil rights activists and educationists have come out questioning the stance of the DMK towards introduction of Hindi in the State’s curriculum. What stood out in the latest round of anti-Hindi tirade by the DMK is a letter written by a school student to Stalin questioning the propriety behind his opposition towards opening Navodaya Schools in the State.
Tamil Nadu is the only State in India which does not allow Navodaya Schools as part of the two-language policy pursued by the Dravidian parties.
B Saadhanashree, a school student, said in her letter to the DMK chief ‘not to fool the people of Tamil Nadu by saying that learning Hindi would destroy Tamil’.
She also accused the DMK chief of preventing the people of Tamil Nadu from learning Hindi to protect his own family.
Saadhanashree , belonging to a middle-class family in Sivagangai district, said that her father had to work as a driver in a school to pay her annual fee of Rs 30,000/-. In her letter which was published in “Kalvi Today”, a magazine exclusive for school education and academics, she asked why the DMK was opposing the opening up of Navodaya Schools, a concept public school launched by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1986 as part of his initiative to make quality public school education available to the socially and backward children.
“It isn’t the rich families like yours that will benefit from Navodaya schools but students from poor and middle-class families in villages, like us,” said Saadhanashree.
She further stated that students from Navodaya Schools in Puducherry passed the NEET medical entrance examination. “But can you say how many students from Tamil Nadu Government-run schools could pass the NEET ?” asked the student.
Sadhanashree requested the DMK president not to ruin the chances of her or thousands of students like her the chance of progressing in life. The letter has come as an embarrassment to the DMK as Puducherry governed by its strong ally, the Congress party, has Navodaya Vidyalayas and the students , though speak Tamil, do not have any opposition in learning Hindi.