A video of DMK MP Tiruchi Siva singing a Hindi song, at a farewell function marking the end of Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad’s Rajya Sabha term, has surfaced on social media. The song sung by Tiruchi Siva is a famous Hindi song called ‘Ek Pyar Ka Nagma Hai’ originally sung by Bharat Ratna Lata Mangeshkar for the film Shor (1972). Senior Congress leaders Anand Sharma and Ghulam Nabi Azad were among the listeners and were impressed by the DMK’s singing and Hindi diction, as is evident from their enthusiastic applause in the video clip.
தமிழ்நாட்டில வந்து
ஹிந்தி தெரியாது போடா
ஹிந்தி ஒழிப்பு
ஹந்தி தணிப்புனு கம்பு சுத்துறதுடெல்லில போய்
इक प्यार का नगमा
ஏக் பியார் கா நக்மா ஹ..#திருட்டுதிமுக pic.twitter.com/J8bYFN2Oes— Tinku_Venkatesh | ಟಿಂಕು_ವೆಂಕಟೇಶ್ (@tweets_tinku) February 15, 2021
Remarkably, the same DMK leader ― who truly enthralled his listeners with the lovely rendition of the Hindi song ― had in 2019 vehemently opposed what he termed as “the attempt to force Hindi language on the people of Tamil Nadu”. The DMK had even come up with a T-shirt campaign called ‘Hindi Theriyathu Poda’ (“I don’t know Hindi, Get lost!”) last year, which of course failed to gather any traction.
DMK leader T Siva in Trichy: The attempt to force Hindi language on people of Tamil Nadu will not be tolerated by its people. We are ready to face any consequences to stop Hindi language being forced on the people here. pic.twitter.com/WE990DUErN
— ANI (@ANI) June 1, 2019
The DMK, well-known for its anti-Hindi stance, regularly tries to resurrect the ghost of “Hindi imposition” in Tamil Nadu. The party introduced language-chauvinism to the Tamil people through the anti-Hindi agitations of the 1960s, which were a culmination of similar agitations by EV Ramasamy and his followers in the pre-independence era. As a result, today, students studying in Tamil Nadu government schools do not have the opportunity to study Hindi. However, political critics have alleged that affluent students have the opportunity to study Hindi in private CBSE schools.
While DMK MPs routinely spew hatred against the Hindi language, the reality is that the MPs and the ministers in the DMK know Hindi very well.
Ghulam Nabi Azad, the senior leader in the Congress party, was elected as a Rajya Sabha MP in 2015 by members of the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.
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