DMK to stage protests against Amit Shah's Hindi pitch on September 20

Chennai, Sep 16: Upping the ante against "Hindi imposition," a high-level DMK meet on Monday announced protest demonstrations across Tamil Nadu on September 20 to condemn Home Minister Amit Shah's Hindi pitch.

The agitation was to nip in the bud the "adverse effects" of "Hindi imposition on "mother Tamil" and the mother tongues of people of other (non-Hindi speaking) states," a resolution adopted at the meet said.

Briefing reporters, DMK chief M K Stalin said the agitation was the first phase of protest on Hindi issue and the further course of action will be decided on the basis of Central government's response and consultations with like-minded parties.

The agitation was to nip in the bud the "adverse effects of Hindi imposition on mother Tamil and the mother tongues of people of other (non-Hindi speaking) states," and the DMK has a responsibility to do it, a resolution adopted at the meet said. Briefing reporters, DMK chief M K Stalin said the stir was the first phase of protest on the Hindi issue and that the further course of action would be decided on the basis of the Central government's response and consultations with like minded parties.

The high-level meet, in which senior leaders took part, echoed Stalin's stand that Shah should withdraw his view on Hindi as a common language and make way for the country's growth.

"This meet urges the Centre to give up Hindi imposition immediately and engage itself in useful activities that will develop the nation." The agitation follows the realisaition of the danger of Indian integrity getting "impaired if the BJP government's poisonous thought is allowed to grow into a venomous tree."

Asserting that DMK is preparing for the protests, the meet urged the BJP-led government not to create a restive atmosphere in the country by using the majority given by the people in the Lok Sabha.

The meet alleged that the Home Minister himself becoming a "brand ambassador" for Hindi alone, slighting the Eight Schedule of languages in the Constitution, including Tamil, has jeopardised the "basis to linguistic States."

The BJP-led government's "ferocious" Hindi imposition and plans on working towards "Hindisation" of India was a cause of deep concern, the meet claimed.

The specially organised meeting listed out several instances to allege that BJP-led government was bent upon thrusting Hindi on the people.

Changing Teachers day celebrations into "Guru Utsav," naming Central government schemes in Hindi and an attempt to bring in a "three language formula" through a New Education Policy were among the points picked to claim Hindi imposition.

Dwelling on a slew of anti-Hindi agitations in Tamil Nadu from as early as 1938, steered by rationalist icon Periyar Ramasamy, the DMK said following such opposition, the late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru assured that English would be the link language as long as non-Hindi speakers desired.

The meet appealed to all sections of society, including students, women, Tamil scholars and spiritualists to take part in the agitations in large numbers.