The DMK government’s 2025-26 budget has replaced the Rupee symbol, which was designed by a Tamilian and widely embraced across India. This decision reeks of hypocrisy and political pettiness.
The Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission’s Executive Vice Chairperson, J. Jeyaranjan, stated that the ₹ symbol was dropped from the state budget because it was based on the Devanagari script. This absurd justification adds to the growing list of illogical decisions under the DMK regime. Jeyaranjan claims that there is no need to accept everything just because it was created by a Tamilian. If that’s his logic, does he believe he knows better than his own party patriarch, Karunanidhi, who once proudly posed with Udaya Kumar, the very creator of the ₹ symbol?
Rejecting What Their Own Party Once Endorsed
Dr. D. Udaya Kumar, the designer of the ₹ symbol, is a Tamilian and the son of N. Dharmalingam, a former DMK Member of the Legislative Assembly from the Rishivandiyam constituency in Tamil Nadu. The symbol was officially adopted in 2010 when the Congress ruled at the Centre and DMK governed Tamil Nadu. None other than P. Chidambaram—another Tamilian and a close ally of the DMK—had felicitated Dr. Udaya Kumar for his design.
Adding to this irony, M. Karunanidhi himself, the former DMK patriarch, had posed for a photograph with Udaya Kumar, acknowledging his contribution to India’s national identity. Yet today, his son, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, is rejecting what his father once celebrated. How deep does this contradiction run within the DMK?
So why is the DMK suddenly turning against something it once proudly endorsed? Is their desperation for identity politics so great that they are willing to erase the contributions of their own party loyalists?
If the DMK is so concerned about sticking to Tamil, why didn’t they implement this change in their budgets from 2021 onwards? The timing of this move only exposes their selective outrage and their continuous attempts to manufacture controversies to stay politically relevant.
A Decision That Insults Tamil Nadu’s Own Legacy
Dr. Udaya Kumar holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Anna University and a Master of Design in Visual Communication from the Industrial Design Centre (IDC) of IIT Bombay. He completed his PhD in 2010, focusing on the evolution of Tamil typography. He currently serves as the Head of the Department of Design at IIT Guwahati.
The ₹ symbol, designed by Dr. Udaya Kumar, is a fusion of the Devanagari letter “र” (ra) and the Latin capital letter “R” without its vertical bar. The parallel lines at the top are said to represent the tricolor Indian flag and also depict an equality sign, symbolizing the nation’s desire to reduce economic disparity.
Yet today, the DMK government has chosen to erase this legacy under the flimsy pretext of rejecting the Devanagari script. The irony is staggering—while DMK claims to champion Tamil pride, it is discarding a symbol designed by a proud Tamilian solely for the sake of petty politics.
Keeping Secessionist Tendencies Alive
This move is not just an attack on a currency symbol—it is part of DMK’s larger agenda to keep its secessionist tendencies alive. Time and again, DMK has attempted to stoke linguistic and regional divides, subtly pushing its anti-national narrative under the garb of Tamil pride. The party’s history is littered with instances of separatist rhetoric, and even today, it continues to create imaginary enemies to maintain its relevance. Instead of working towards true federalism and development, it keeps playing the divisive card, undermining the unity of the nation.
How Much Lower Can Stalin’s DMK Sink?
At this point, one has to ask: How much lower can Stalin’s DMK sink? The party has become a circus of incompetence, constantly contradicting itself in an attempt to manufacture outrage. Instead of focusing on real governance, they waste their time on divisive, performative politics that do nothing to benefit the people of Tamil Nadu.
The people of Tamil Nadu deserve better than a government that prioritizes theatrics over real progress. Stalin’s DMK has once again proven that it is a party of nincompoops—driven not by rational governance, but by an insatiable need to stir controversy.
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