Parties in Tamil Nadu including the DMK Saturday strongly opposed the three language formula’s continuation proposed in the draft National Education Policy alleging it was tantamount to “thrusting” Hindi and wanted it junked.
The Tamil Nadu government said it would continue with thetwo-language formula, seeking to cool frayed tempers.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram in a series of tweetsin Tamil said: “what is the meaning of three language formula in schools?The meaning is they will make Hindi a compulsory subject…”
In another tweet, he said “If Hindi language is acompulsory subject its import is imposition of Hindi.”
“The BJP government’s real face is beginning toemerge…” he also tweeted.
Meanwhile, “#StopHindiImposition,
#TNAgainstHindiImposition trended on the microblogging siteTwitter.
The three language formula which bats for Hindi from”pre-school to class 12 was a big shocker,” and the recommendationwould “divide” the country, DMK chief M K Stalin said.
The draft policy prepared by a panel led by eminentscientist K Kasturirangan was unveiled on Friday.
Recalling the anti-Hindi agitations beginning as early as1937 in Tamil Nadu, the DMK leader in a statement here said since 1968 theState was following the two-language formula of learning only Tamil andEnglish.
The DMK would never tolerate imposition of Hindi andstrongly oppose it. “Still, I believe that the Central BJP government willnot make way for another language stir,” he said.
The Dravidian party also said recommendations like”Gurukula” mode of education, teaching Sanskrit and sending Hinditeachers from Hindi speaking States to non-Hindi speaking States would in duecourse cause a “big danger” to non-Hindi speaking people.
The recommendations, the DMK said rather than lifting the standardsof education has led to doubts that it had “ulterior motives” likeimposition of Hindi on non-Hindi speaking States and thrusting Sanskrit inschools.
Recalling Jawaharlal Nehru’s assurance that English wouldcontinue to be in use till such time desired by non-Hindi speaking States, healso pointed out that the State had enacted years ago a Compulsory TamilLearning Act.
Demanding the Centre to reject the draft recommendationswhich was “imposition,” of Hindi under the garb of three-languageformula, he said his party MPs would voice their strong opposition inParliament as soon as the House was convened.
The BJP must never even dream to implement three languageformula in Tamil Nadu and such a “greedy dream,” would lead to”catastrophic,” consequences for them, he said.
Parties including the CPI and BJP’s ally in the Lok Sabhapolls, the PMK too alleged the recommendation on the three language formula was”imposition of Hindi” and wanted scrapping it.
The draft National Education Policy, 2019 available on thegovernment website said the three-language formula will need to be implementedin its spirit throughout the country, promoting multilingual communicativeabilities for a multilingual country.
“…Students who wish to change one of the threelanguages they are studying may do so in Grade 6, so long as the study of threelanguages by students in the Hindi-speaking states would continue to includeHindi and English and one of the modern Indian languages from other parts ofIndia, … while the study of languages by students in the non-Hindi-speakingstates would include the regional language, Hindi and English.”
The draft policy said India also has “an extremely richliterature in other classical languages, including classical Tamil, as well asclassical Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Odia, in addition to Pali, Persian,and Prakrit; these classical languages and their literatures too must bepreserved for their richness and for the pleasure and enrichment ofposterity.”A choice of foreign languages like French andGerman, would be offered and available to interested students to choose aselectives during secondary school.