Tamil Nadu Assembly passes resolution against 'Hindi imposition', BJP MLAs walk out

The Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a resolution against the Parliament Committee report which recommended making Hindi the medium of instruction in all central educational institutions.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin moved the resolution in the state assembly, saying that the House urges the government not to implement recommendations made in Parliamentary Committee Report on Official Language submitted by its Chairman to President.

He said the recommendations were against state languages including Tamil and also against people's interest who speak those languages," he said.

As the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed the resolution, state BJP MLAs walked out of the House in protest.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin condemned the Centre over "aggressive attempts of the Union government to impose Hindi by all possible avenues". He said, "These are against the federal principles of our constitution."

In a tweet on Sunday, he also appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi "to take stock of the reasonable fear and discontent among the non-Hindi..." He argued that "such impractical, divisive attempts will put non-Hindi states people in a disadvantageous position and jeopardise the spirit of the union - state relations."

Stalin had warned the Centre against forcing another "language war by imposing" Hindi. He had further demanded to make all languages in the 8th Schedule Official Languages.

On October 10, Stalin had said the proposals made in the 11th volume of the report of the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language are a "direct onslaught on India's soul". "If implemented, the vast non-Hindi speaking population will be made second-class citizens in their own land," he said.

The 11th volume of the Report of the Official Language Committee, headed by Home Minister Amit Shah, was submitted to President Droupadi Murmu in September.

According to an Indian Express report, around 100 recommendations were made by the committee. These include that Hindi should be the medium of instruction in IITs, IIMs, and central universities in the Hindi-speaking states. And in other parts of the country, the medium of instruction should be the respective regional languages.

In its report, the Committee of Parliament on Official Language also recommended that local languages should be given preference over English in all states.

The report further suggested that Hindi should be one of the official languages of the United Nations.

According to the Times of India, all states and Union territories are divided in three groups (regions) on the basis of progressive usage of Hindi

Category 'A': Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Hindi should be used 100 percent)

Category 'B': Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab, and the Union territories of Chandigarh, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli

Category 'C': The rest of India is categorised

However, MK Stalin claimed that the following recommendation were made in the report. He also laid out his objections in a twitter post:

(Twitter/@mkstalin)