Hindi, French courses at International Institute of Tamil Studies optional, says K Pandiarajan

Rubbishing the DMK's allegation that the Tamil Development Department was gradually turning into 'Tamil Annihilation Department', the minister for Tamil Official Language and Tamil Culture, K Pandiarajan, on Wednesday clarified that the Hindi and French courses were optional and not compulsory.

The DMK's recent tirade was directed against the launch of training classes for Hindi in the International Institute of Tamil Studies (IITS). Pandiarajan said the Hindi and French courses were optional and not compulsory. Besides, these languages were chosen by the students themselves and if they opt for any other Indian language in the coming years, the institute would not have any hesitation to offer a different language.

Addressing a press conference at the IITS, the minister said all the 101 research students had opted for Hindi and French language training. Just by learning these languages, Tamil would not get weakened. "Annually, Hindi classes are offered only for 100 hours - ie, two hours per week. As such, trying to give the impression that instead of promoting Tamil, Hindi is being projected, is nothing but ignorance. Actually, the training in Hindi and French languages was started in 2014 and recently, it was announced in the State Assembly too," Pandiarajan said, referring to the statement of former School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu.

Listing the measures taken for the growth of Tamil language by the successive AIADMK regimes, the minister said across the country and in many countries, Tamil Vazhar Mandrams were being established in 1,000 places. Sorkuvai project for coining new words was gaining momentum every day. None of such initiatives were taken during the previous DMK regime but the DMK was only making empty rhetoric about its efforts for the development of Tamil language.

The minister also alleged that the DMK was hiring 'cyber coolies' to troll him in social media as well as to make phone calls to abuse him. He said complaints have been lodged with cybercrime and the 'cyber coolies' would be arrested.