The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) has joined the chorus in Tamil Nadu against the alleged imposition of Hindi by the BJP-led central government. On Thursday, October 13, members of the youth organisation launched a protest, demanding that the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams be conducted in regional languages, including Tamil. The protest was held near the head post office in Tiruchirapalli.
The DYFI members have claimed that it is the constitutional right of the students to give these exams in their regional languages. According to a report by The New Indian Express, the protest was led by DYFI's District Secretary, P Lenin, who said, "SSC exams conducted by the union government do not have provisions to accommodate regional languages in its entrance exams. We demand the union government conduct the SSC exams in all recognized regional languages."
Recently, a parliamentary committee, constituted and led by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, proposed that Hindi be the medium of education in schools across the country. The DYFI protestors claimed that if such an imposition happens, it would affect "non-Hindi" states. "It would affect our state badly. Tamil Nadu has a history of fighting for what it represents and the recent decisions by the union government only rekindle our old fighting spirit for our language," added Lenin.
Tamil Nadu's ruling party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), led by Chief Minister MK Stalin, has already announced that they will protest against the decision by the Amit Shah-led panel. The DMK Youth Wing Secretary Udhyanithi Stalin and Students Wing Secretary CVMP Ezhilarasan jointly released a statement on Wednesday, October 12, in which they announced a protest against the central government's "Hindi imposition policies". DMK has planned protests across Tamil Nadu on October 15, as per ANI.
