Chennai, April 13: Tamil Nadu BJP legislative party leader Nainar Nagendran has said that the party would not allow imposition of Hindi in the state. In a statement, he said that there was no need to learn a language under any compulsion to prove that he was an Indian.

The BJP leader said that the party would oppose any forceful imposition of Hindi in Tamil Nadu. BJP state president K. Annamalai had also on Tuesday said that the state BJP would not allow the imposition of Hindi language on the people of the state.

Both the leaders were responding after severe criticism had erupted in Tamil Nadu over the statement of Union Minister Amit Shah that Hindi should replace English as the link language among the states. Ambedkar Jayanti 2022: Tamil Nadu Will Celebrate April 14 As Equality Day, Says MK Stalin.

Nainar Nagendran said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not approved the draft of the National Educational Policy that had Hindi as the main language. The BJP legislative party leader said that the Prime Minister had given the go-ahead to the National Educational Policy only after Hindi was made an optional language.

The BJP Tamil Nadu unit president has lashed out against the Congress and said that the party had politicised the issue for the past 40 to 45 years and added that P. Chidambaram as Union Minister had stressed the need to give importance to Hindi language during a function at Hindi diwas during the UPA- II regime.

He said that the DMK was part and parcel of the UPA government and had the ministers representing the party when Chidambaram as Union minister had mooted the idea to give importance to the Hindi language.

Annamalai had also welcomed the suggestion of musician A.R. Rahman that Tamil could be the link language of the nation and added that stress must be given to develop the language.

The BJP state president had said that no efforts have been made in Tamil Nadu to develop that language and added that the number of students taking the Class 12 board exam in Tamil medium was coming down drastically and said that soon it will fall below 50 per cent.

K. Annamalai had on Tuesday called upon Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin to write letters to all the Chief Ministers asking them to teach in Tamil in at least ten schools in that state and provide the necessary funds for the project.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 13, 2022 04:43 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).