NEP push ignites DMK-BJP row as Congress watches from sidelines | India News

DMK employees protest final week in opposition to Hindi ‘imposition’ (PTI photograph)

NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu’s protest over the withholding of central funds for schemes below Right to Education and Modi govt’s linking of those funds to implementation of the NEP by states, has reignited the “language war”. It’s a full-blown showdown between BJP and DMK for now, however there’s rising anxiousness about whether or not it may pressure different gamers to take sides, including to the already risky political combine.
When CM M Okay Stalin wrote to PM Modi, demanding launch of Rs 2,512 crore for RTE schemes, Centre pointed to TN’s non-implementation of NEP. Stalin shot again, declaring he wouldn’t comply with the “imposition of Hindi” even for a lot of extra crores. Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan reacted, telling Stalin: “NEP 2020 upholds the principle of linguistic freedom and ensures students continue to learn in the language of their choice.”
The north-south dimension of the difficulty is pronounced. Southern states like Karnataka and Kerala, and even others, take satisfaction of their native languages and are receptive to solutions that the north is imposing itself additional — this, after having cornered political energy post-Independence. Stalin’s remarks mirror DMK’s long-standing dedication to a two-language coverage — Tamil and English — rooted within the state’s Dravidian ethos and its historic resistance to Hindi courting again to the anti-Hindi agitations of the Nineteen Thirties and Nineteen Sixties.
The lure of language as a political weapon is obvious. Since TN upped the ante, Punjab within the north and Telangana within the south have introduced that Punjabi and Telugu, respectively, can be obligatory essential languages in faculties.
The political edge to this spat has left the protagonists cautious. While BJP is obsessed with Hindi, it additionally realises it can’t endear itself to the native inhabitants within the south by reinforcing its picture as the occasion of north India. It is a key participant within the bipolar politics of Karnataka, more and more robust in Telangana, and is making an keen push in TN, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh by hoping to win over allies.
The tightrope stroll for BJP was evident when its TN chief Okay Annamalai alleged DMK was “deliberately misconstruing the NEP for political gains”. It has burdened within the southern states that the DMK’s allegation of Hindi imposition is and not using a foundation as the three-language, which was first rolled out below Congress govts, focuses on the promotion of all Indian languages, moderately than a selected one.
Congress, in the meantime, has chosen to observe the battle from the sidelines. Party functionaries privately argue there’s benefit in DMK’s allegations, pointing to how acronyms of central schemes — and even the three new IPC-CrPC legal guidelines (Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita) — are chaste Hindi, with out English equivalents. They name this new pattern insensitive to southern sentiments, warning that it dangers rekindling fears of “cultural imperialism”. They imagine the row, if protracted, may additionally contact a uncooked nerve within the north-eastern states.
However, the principal opposition occasion is conscious that it’s a north Indian occasion and can’t take a place the place it’s perceived as “anti-Hindi”. This is why AICC has adopted anuanced stance on the language challenge. Many level to the historic handicap that nationwide events like Congress, which should cater to all areas, are saddled with — not like regional events, which may pander to very native sentiments.
This paradox was m ost evident within the Nineteen Nineties when Samajwadi Party mascot Mulayam Singh Yadav crossed swords with late DMK neta M Okay Karunanidhi over the language challenge, regardless of being allies on the Centre. The alliance alongside “secular vs communal” strains persists even at present, although SP has since moderated its Hindi impulses by not becoming a member of the difficulty lately.
Despite lingering considerations, Congress sources claimed the danger of a blowback is minimal, as language has not been a big challenge within the north for a few years. They imagine political planks in upcoming elections — like Bihar and Kerala — will revolve round caste census, social justice and anti-incumbency, moderately than language.
BJP is not going to make Congress’s tactical silence an enormous challenge as a result of it doesn’t need its southern push to be damage. But on the grassroots degree, it should spotlight Congress’s refusal to distance itself from Stalin in the identical approach it talked up DMK’s anti-Sanatan stand and Congress’s disinclination to disengage itself from it.