CM hits out at Amit Shah, says TN is not a puppet state

DMK president and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday took a jibe at BJP leader and union home minister Amit Shah and said that Tamil Nadu is not a puppet state to blindly listen to his words. He warned not to push the state to the extent of creating another 1965 language revolution.

While addressing the 38^th meeting of the Parliamentary committee on official language in New Delhi on Friday, Shah said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been popularizing Hindi and other local languages on the global stage. There is no competition between Hindi and other local languages. The country would gain its status only by encouraging all the languages equally. Languages helped in uniting the nation.”

Pointing out that the union government has been taking steps to introduce engineering and medical courses in ten languages, he said that the courses would be offered in all Indian languages at the earliest.

“Accepting an official language should not be imposed through a law or circular. Instead, it should come out of their own interest. Only when local languages are respected, official language would be accepted,” he added.

Stalin has condemned Shah’s speech and said, “Amit Shah’s speech on accepting Hindi as an official language without reluctance, is nothing but an attempt to make people speaking all other languages a slave to them. Tamil Nadu is not a puppet state to listen to his words blindly. We are all well aware of the BJP politics. They would speak in favour of Tamil during their visit to the state and change their colors immediately after returning to New Delhi. He should realize that other states including West Bengal and Karnataka have also started opposing Hindi imposition. He should not pave a path for repeating the 1965 language war.”