Claiming that the union government is trying to impose Hindi through the New Education Policy (NEP), the members of the Federation of Students Organisations (FSO), Tamil Nadu, held protests across the state, including several places in Chennai, on Tuesday, February 25.
At many places, the protests were staged near union government offices including post offices and BSNL offices, stated a report by The New Indian Express.
State deputy secretary of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) student wing, Tamil Ka Amutharasan, who led the agitation in Chennai, said the protests were necessitated as Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan is keen on imposing three-language policy on Tamil Nadu.
He added, "Tamil Nadu has already achieved the goals for which the NEP was formulated. Then why are they insisting us to accept it? They are even holding our educational funds and blackmailing us to accept Hindi. This is more cruel than the situation that triggered the 1965 Tamil language struggle."
State deputy secretary of Dravidian Students' Federation, SP Thondaram, said since the union government has not released the fund to the tune of `2,152 crore for Samagra Shiksha scheme, the government school students in the state are badly affected.
The federation, FSO-TN, comprises the students wing of DMK, its allies and the Left parties. It was formed following the death of Anitha, a medical aspirant who died by suicide over NEET in 2017.
