Chennai: Tamil Nadu and the DMK will do everything to stop ‘Hindi imposition,’ Chief Minister M K Stalin said on Monday terming a circular on use of Hindi issued by The New India Assurance as ‘unjust’, while the public sector company responded saying it respected all regional languages.
Stalin, also the president of the ruling DMK, posted the circular on his Twitter handle and said while each and every citizen contributed to the nation’s development, the Union government and its institutions continued to give an “undue and unfair” advantage to Hindi over other Indian languages in every possible way.
The circular titled ‘Check points for Hindi implementation,’ includes a mandate stipulating compliance of relevant sections and rules under the Official Languages Act, 1963.
The chief minister said the union government was intent on spending its valuable resources on “imposing Hindi down our throats”, rather than for public welfare.
“Latest in this list is the unjust circular issued by New India Assurance. It must be withdrawn with immediate effect and its Chairperson Neerja Kapur needs to apologise for the disrespect shown towards non-Hindi speakers of India and non-Hindi speaking employees of New India Assurance.”
The New India Assurance tweeted saying: “@NewIndAssurance specifically mentioned under point 25 that all advertisements, tenders and press releases to be published in newspapers in English, Hindi and regional languages as done by any other Public Sector Organisations of India. We respect all regional languages.”
Stalin said gone were the days of non-Hindi speaking citizens of India tolerating the “second-class treatment” meted out to them despite their contribution in propelling India’s growth with their hard work and talent.
“Tamil Nadu and DMK will do everything under our power to Stop Hindi Imposition, as we have always strived in our history. We will remove the undeserving special status that Hindi enjoys everywhere in the Union government, like Railways, Postal Department, Banking and Parliament that affects us and our people on a day-to-day basis,” he said.
“We pay our taxes, contribute to the progress and believe in our rich heritage and this nation’s diversity. Our languages deserve to be treated equally. We will resist any attempt to replace Tamil with Hindi in our land,” he added.
