Home State Tamil Nadu The Truth Behind DMK’s Viral ‘Japanese-Speaking Students’ Claim

The Truth Behind DMK’s Viral ‘Japanese-Speaking Students’ Claim

By
The Commune
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A few days ago, DMK Supporting YouTuber Senthilvel shared a video on his X handle stating, “This video is a creation of our Tamil Kelvi. It has received an overwhelming response, which brings immense happiness. Last week, we captured and released the contributions made by the DMK to Chennai’s development. That too received a massive response from lakhs of people. Now, this video explaining the Dravidian model’s achievements in education and industrial growth has also been widely appreciated. I have been consistently participating in media debates, presenting data and arguments in support of the Dravidian model government being formed again under the leadership of the Hon’ble Chief Minister M.K. Stalin. I also wrote the book “Why Dravidam 2.0? What for?”, which was released by the Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin. Through the Tamil Kelvi YouTube channel, I continue to upload videos regularly. Through public meetings, seminars, and interviews on YouTube platforms, I am contributing in whatever way I can to ensure that this government returns to power. I will continue to do so with even greater intensity. This is not just another election. It is a great ideological battle. In this battle, Dravidam must win. For that, we must unite.

Stalin should continue.
Tamil Nadu should win.

Thank you 🙏
 T. Senthil Vel”

What Was The Video About?

Senthil Vel’s video constructed this narrative through a fictional short film format:

  • A Japanese car company executive visits a Tamil Nadu government school
  • A North Indian official named “Mukesh Chaudhary” speaks Hindi to the students; they don’t understand
  • A student suddenly greets the Japanese officer in perfect Japanese – “Konnichiwa”
  • The reveal: Tamil Nadu government sent students on an educational tour to Japan, where they learned the language
  • The punchline: CM MK Stalin gets the credit, patriotic music swells

They wanted this to mean: Tamil Nadu students don’t need Hindi because they’re learning Japanese; the Dravidian Model is producing internationally competitive students

Let us now explore the core lies that Senthilvel is making through his propaganda video.

DECEPTION 1: The Japan Trip Was Evidence Of Educational Excellence

The Japan trip did happen. In November 2023, the Tamil Nadu School Education Department took 24 government school students on an educational tour to Japan from November 3-9, accompanied by six teachers and two officers. They visited Miraikan (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation) and the University of Tokyo.

But here is what Senthil Vel deliberately omitted: the students were selected through a competition, not academic merit. Student Selva confirmed on camera: “Through a short film competition, the education department had taken us to Japan.” Student Poorvika from Annavasal Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Pudukkottai, confirmed: “After winning the state level short film competition, I was taken to Japan.”

No, they did not make/direct/produce/write short films – This was an extra-curricular activity award, a state-sponsored incentive trip for winners of a film analysis competition, not a programme for academic achievers, science champions, or mathematically gifted students. The students who went to Japan were not chosen because Tamil Nadu’s government school system had made them internationally competitive. They were chosen because they could analyse cinematography in a competition. These are entirely different things.

DECEPTION 2: Students Learned Japanese From The Trip

Senthil Vel’s video implies that a 10-day trip to Japan was sufficient for government school students to achieve conversational Japanese fluency. The trip lasted November 3-9, 2023, approximately one week. A student saying “Konnichiwa” (the most basic Japanese greeting, equivalent to “hello”) after visiting Japan is presented as proof of language acquisition at a functional level. This is straightforwardly dishonest. This is a scripted dramatisation, not a documentary claim. Children learn far more Japanese by watching Anime these days!

DECEPTION 3: This Proves Tamil Nadu Government Schools Are World-Class

This is the most damaging part of the debunk, and it is backed by hard numbers from two independent national surveys:

Evidence 1 – ASER 2024 (Annual Status of Education Report)

Conducted by Pratham Education Foundation, cited by World Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO, and Indian Parliament, surveyed 876 villages, 30 districts, 17,000 homes, 29,000 children aged 3–16 in Tamil Nadu in 2024. The Commune has a detailed report on ASER 2024 – Read here.

The findings for Tamil Nadu government schools:

  • Class 3 students: Only 13.2% can read a Class 2-level text. This means 86.8% of Class 3 students cannot read the textbook from the grade they just completed.
  • Class 5 students: Only 35.6% can read a Class 2-level text, meaning 64.4% of Class 5 students cannot read a textbook three grades below their current level.​

For comparison: Bihar, the state DMK supporters routinely cite as a symbol of educational backwardness, had 20.1% of Class 3 students reading at Class 2 level. Uttar Pradesh had 27.9%. Tamil Nadu at 13.2% is below both.

Evidence 2 – State Level Achievement Survey (SLAS), cited in Times of India

This survey of Class 3, 5, and 8 students by District Institutes of Education and Training found:

  • Class 8 students scored an average of 43.3 out of 100 in English and 44.7 out of 100 in Mathematics​
  • A district secretary of the Tamil Nadu Primary School Federation confirmed that many rural government schools operate with only two teachers for the entire school
  • New teacher appointments are made only when student strength crosses 70, meaning a single teacher often handles Classes 1 through 5 simultaneously​
  • The State Vice President of Tamil Nadu Primary School Teachers Federation confirmed that retired-age teachers who should have been relieved 12 years ago are still in service because the government cannot afford fresh appointments
DECEPTION 4: The Hindi-Resistance Framing

Senthil Vel deliberately embedded the Hindi imposition controversy into his narrative – the “Mukesh Chaudhary” character who insults Tamil students for not knowing Hindi, set against a Tamil student who triumphantly speaks Japanese. This is political microtargeting through fiction: it weaponises a genuine and legitimate political grievance (opposition to Hindi imposition) to manufacture emotional support for a false claim about Tamil Nadu’s educational quality.​

The anti-Hindi sentiment is real and has a legitimate political history but using it as an emotional wrapper to hide fabricated claims about government school quality is manipulation, not journalism.

What Is Legitimately Praiseworthy 

We can acknowledge two genuinely positive aspects that Senthil Vel embedded in his propaganda:

The school film festival scheme itself is a good idea. Exposing rural government school students to world cinema and building film literacy and analytical thinking is valuable especially for children who have never had access to OTT platforms or urban cultural exposure. The government deserves credit for this initiative. ​

The Japan trip itself is a good motivational incentive. Taking students who won a competition abroad is an excellent way to encourage participation and reward achievement. It is the misrepresentation of its significance that is the problem, not the trip itself.

The Bigger Story Nobody Has Reported: What Is Kalvi Suttrula?

​The Japan trip is not a stand-alone PR exercise. It is one episode in a formally named, annually expanding, multi-country, multi-crore programme called Kalvi Suttrula (Education Tour), introduced in 2022–23 by School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi.

2022–23 (First batch)

  • Malaysia and Singapore: Inaugural trips under the scheme​

2023–24

  • Japan (November 2023): 24 students, 6 teachers, 2 officers, visited Miraikan museum, University of Tokyo, Japan Tamil Sangam​
  • South Korea: 24 students from the children’s film club; 25 students each from quiz and rainbow clubs also went to South Korea
    ​

2024–25

Singapore (December 2024) – students visited Gardens by the Bay and other sites; Anbil Mahesh personally accompanied and posted updates​

Malaysia (February 2025) – 52 students from grades 6–9 accompanied by 4 teachers and officials, visited Kuala Lumpur for 5 days

 

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  • Germany (May 2025) – 22 students on a week-long tour to Munich under Kalvi Suttrula at a cost of ₹3 crore, visited BMW Museum, Dachau, Deutsches Museum, Swarovski Crystal Worlds​
  • Japan – 22 students from the sports club​
  • Hong Kong – also visited in this cycle​

2025–26 (Current academic year)

  • Malaysia (February 9–13, 2026) – 40 students with 2 teachers and 2 Chief Education Officers, the 8th international trip under the scheme

By May 2025, the School Education Department officially confirmed that 323 students had travelled abroad through Kalvi Suttrula across all batches. Countries visited to date: UAE, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Germany – seven countries across three continents.​

The Germany trip alone cost ₹3 crore for 22 students. Extrapolating across all 323 students and 8 trips, the total taxpayer expenditure on this programme across three years runs into tens of crores with no consolidated public accounting published anywhere.

​Every trip also sends senior officials abroad: Joint Directors, District Primary Education Officers, Chief Education Officers at additional undisclosed cost, with Minister Anbil Mahesh either accompanying or video-calling in, generating photos for his personal campaign website anbilmaheshforever.com.

DMK’s propaganda ecosystem specialises in using emotional storytelling, music, and identity politics to bypass factual scrutiny is well-established by this single case study. A government whose Class 3 students score below Bihar in reading levels, whose rural schools run with two teachers, whose Class 8 students average 43 out of 100 in English, is producing a viral cinematic short film about those same students speaking Japanese. That gap between reality and representation is not a communication failure but propaganda disguised as deception.

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