Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday slammed the Centre and its insurance company, New India Assurance for issuing a circular in Hindi terming it as “unjust”. Taking to Twitter, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief said Tamil Nadu and the DMK will do everything to stop “Hindi imposition”. “While each and every citizen of India is contributing to its development, the Union Government and its institutions continue to give an undue and unfair advantage to Hindi, over other Indian languages in every possible way,” he added.
Calling it a “disrespect” towards non-Hindi speakers of India and non-Hindi speaking employees of the company, the Tamil Nadu CM demanded an apology from Chairperson Neerja Kapur.
“It must be withdrawn with immediate effect and its Chairperson Neerja Kapur needs to apologise for the disrespect shown towards non-Hindi speakers of India and non-Hindi speaking employees of New India Assurance.”
“We will remove the undeserving special status that Hindi enjoys everywhere in the Union Government, like Railways, Postal Department, Banking and Parliament that affects us and our people on a day-to-day basis.”
Furthering his attack, Stalin said, “Gone are the days of non-Hindi speaking citizens of India tolerating the second-class treatment meted out to them, despite their contribution in propelling India's growth with their hard work and talent.”
“We pay our taxes, contribute to the progress, and believe in our rich heritage and this nation’s diversity. Our languages deserve to be treated equally. We will resist any attempt to replace Tamil with Hindi in our land,” he added.
Meanwhile, the public sector company responded saying it respected all regional languages, as per a PTI report.
The circular titled 'Check points for Hindi implementation,' includes a mandate stipulating compliance of relevant sections and rules under the Official Languages Act, 1963.