Hindi | Tamil Nadu 'No imposition': Vice-President dismisses allegations of Hindi hegemony on Centre
Chennai: Setting aside the accusation of language imposition against the BJP and the Centre, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu said Saturday there is "no imposition of any language, no opposition to any language...learn as many languages as possible", media reports said.
The Centre received a barrage of criticism after Home Minister Amit Shah emphasised the need to accept Hindi as an alternative to English instead of other regional languages, a subject which has long been viewed as an attempt to assert the primacy of Hindi over other regional languages.
DMK, which now rules, Tamil Nadu had been at the forefront of the anti-Hindi agitations in the 60s which claimed several lives.
Reacting to Shah's April 7 statement, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin had said his thrust on Hindi went against India's 'integrity and pluralism'.
At the same time, Tamil Nadu BJP Chief K Annamalai had said that the state BJP unit will neither accept nor allow Hindi imposition.
Today, Naidu unveiled a life-size statue of the late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, who headed the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) for 50 years.
The 16-foot-high bronze statue on a 14-foot pedestal has been installed by the Tamil Nadu government at Chennai's Omandurar Government Estate along Anna Salai.
At the event, Vice-President Naidu also emphasised the importance of the federal system. "Only if states develop, the country will develop...The country can't prosper without the development of states," he said.
Tamil Nadu opposition party AIADMK remained absent during the unveiling ceremony.
"There should be respect for leaders. All should work together agreeing to disagree. In politics, there are only political rivals, no enemies," he observed.
The inauguration of the statue of Karunanidhi, who was elected the chief minister of Tamil Nadu for five terms, comes ahead of his birth anniversary on June 3.
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