Tamil Nadu CPM to hold meet against Hindi

The Tamil Nadu unit of the CPI(M) has proposed to hold a conclave of the chief ministers of non-Hindi speaking States in protest against the BJP-led central government's attempts to impose Hindi.

"We are planning to hold a conclave in Chennai with the participation of chief ministers of non-Hindi speaking states. We want to send out a strong message to the Narendra Modi government at the Centre for imposing Hindi," CPI(M)'s Tamil Nadu unit secretary and politburo member, G Ramakrishnan, told DNA.

He said that the CMs they are planning to invite include Andhra Pradesh's Chandrababu Naidu, Telangana's K Chandrasekar Rao and Bihar's Nitish Kumar. "The date for the conclave will be decided later," he said. The CPI(M)'s decision to hold the conclave comes after its cultural organisation — Tamil Nadu Progressive Writers and Artistes Association — along with the Students Federation of India organised a conference on the rights of Tamils here on June 26.

"Hindi is one among the 22 languages listed in the eighth schedule of the Constitution. Why should Hindi alone be promoted at the cost of other languages? It is the BJP's plan of imposing Hindi first, followed by Sanskrit, to implement their larger agenda of creating one nation, one language and one culture," Ramakrishnan said, pointing to the Centre's move to print passports in Hindi along with English.

LANGUAGE BARRIER

• TN has a history of opposing the imposition of Hindi in schools.
   
• An anti-Hindi movement, in fact, helped the Dravidian parties to come to power in 1967 ousting the Congress government in the state.