Former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer K Annamalai who had joined the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) as its vice-president of the party’s Tamil Nadu unit in an interview with Deccan Herald said he and his party deny the accusations of ‘Hindi imposition’ that is often levelled against his party.
The whole Hindi language has again reared its ugly head as the legislative elections in the southern state fast approaching in 2021. However, Annamalai also said language politics which has been the bread and butter of the DMK is a dead horse in the state and will not work in the 2021 elections.
“Hindi was never imposed in Tamil Nadu by the BJP. Hindi was imposed in Tamil Nadu in 1965, 1968 and 1986 by the Congress governments. The three-language formula proposed in the New Education Policy (NEP) does not impose Hindi and it is very clear that the third language is optional, and it could even be a regional language,” Annamalai said.
He further added, “The only thing that Dravidian parties do is to play with the Tamil pride. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the one who propagated Tamil by quoting Thirukkural and Kanian Poongundranar. If this is the case, how can BJP be anti-Tamil?”