The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Tuesday passed a resolution against “imposition of Hindi” and urged the Union government not to implement recommendations of the report of the Parliamentary committee on Official Language.
The resolution, put forward by Chief Minister M K Stalin, was passed unanimously after BJP members staged a walkout and AIADMK MLAs were suspended.
“This House is worried that recommendations of the Parliamentary Committee go against the two-language policy resolution moved and passed by former CM, C.N. Annadurai. They also go against what the then-PM [Jawaharlal] Nehru promised to states that don’t speak Hindi, and they go against the use of English as official language, made clear by resolutions passed in 1968 and 1976,” read the resolution.
Tamil Nadu is “once again being forced to defend mother tongue Tamil, to keep English as the official language, to keep all 22 languages in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution, and to protect the rights of the people in States that don’t speak Hindi,” the resolution stated.
“I think it’s right to remember those who died or went to jail to protect the Tamil language. Language is our life, our emotions, and our future,” said Stalin.
“They (Union government) say they care about the state language…but their hearts really only beat for Hindi…” Stalin said.
According to the resolution, the suggestions in the recent report given to the President by Union Home Minister Amit Shah and the House panel chairman are “harmful to people of non-Hindi speaking States, including Tamil Nadu.”
