DMK tries to ignite flame of ‘Hindi imposition’ again, TNM tries to fan it, mission fails again

After the ‘Hindi Theriyathu Poda’ t-shirt campaign (started by DMK MP Kanimozhi and advertised by the party’s sympathizers in the media and cinema industry) fell flat, the DMK once again pounced on the opportunity to do its language politics over another incident, this time, over an IRCTC railway ticket.

A passenger who had booked a train ticket from Madurai to Chennai through IRCTC website had reportedly received the text message containing her ticket details in Hindi.

Sharing a screenshot of this message, South Chennai DMK MP Thamizhachi Thangapandian tweeted in Tamil saying that IRCTC was imposing Hindi although the Constitution recognizes 23 languages as official language. She claimed that the Government of India was imposing Hindi through ‘insidious means’.

Central Chennai DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran sharing the same screenshot asked also made hue and cry about Hindi imposition.

Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) leader Dr. Ramadoss too jumped the bandwagon and claimed that the IRCTC had been sending the ticket messages in Hindi for the past two days. He said that sending ticket text messages in Hindi was a ‘planned Hindi imposition’.

Following this, The News Minute which had earlier given enough publicity to Kanimozhi’s ‘Hindi Theriyathu Poda’ campaign, carried a story about this incident with the title “IRCTC sends TN woman ticket confirmation text in Hindi, sparks language imposition row”.

 

However, their efforts to rake up language sentiments failed as the IRCTC and Southern Railways busted the claims of ‘Hindi imposition’.

The IRCTC replying to Thamizhachi Thangapandian’s tweet said that at the time of registration, the user had the option to select their language preference – either English or Hindi and that in the said case the user had chosen Hindi as the preferred language.

Replying to Dayanidhi Maran’s tweet IRCTC clarified that the User ID ‘selvimano05’ through which the ticket was booked had set the preferred language as Hindi, which was the reason for the ticket getting generated in Hindi.

The Southern Railways too through its official handle clarified that choosing a language is an option in e-ticketing and that in the said case the user had indicated the preferred language as Hindi. In its statement, the Southern Railways requested the passengers to choose the correct language while registering in the IRCTC website.

A user while registering himself/herself in the IRCTC website is asked to set the preferred language.

Even after the clarification from IRCTC and Southern Railways, neither the DMK leaders who cried foul acknowledged the response given nor did The News Minute which had carried the story claiming of ‘sparking Hindi imposition row’ clarified the matter to the public.