Minister for Skill Development (independent charge) and Minister of State (MoS) for Education Jayant Chaudhary criticised Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin for using doublespeak regarding the three-language formula controversy.
Chaudhary said that statements by Stalin, saying that he was prepared for a “language war” over the National Education Policy (NEP) and the three-language formula it espoused, amounted to a denial of opportunities to the youth of Tamil Nadu.
“Mr. Stalin himself knows four languages, and is multi-lingual, why is he then determined to block the way for the youth?” he said. He also pointed out that talk of a language war does not square with the DMK’s ideological rhetoric. “You cannot keep saying that you are arbiters of liberal, progressive and constitutional values while at the same time exhibiting illiberalism with regard to language,” he said, stated the Hindu.
“I am also Minister for skill development, and the Tamil Nadu government-run Overseas Manpower Corporation Limited (OMCL) provides for free facilitation of learning languages like German and Italian to skilled personnel like nurses and so on, for jobs abroad. Why then this resistance to Indian languages and specifically Hindi,” he said.
“Why can’t these good practices with regard to multi-lingualism be applied under NEP which is aimed at adoption of multiple languages,” he added.
He added that Stalin’s statements were aimed at raising political passions around the issue of language, looking at the way this issue has unfolded in the past. “The statements are clearly meant to raise a longer political campaign around language,” he said. Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu are due in early 2026.
On the anxieties expressed by Stalin over delimitation reducing the representation of southern states in terms of Lok Sabha seats and calling a meeting of southern states on March 5, Chaudhary said that it was an effort to anticipate things that have not been decided as yet.
“Nothing has been decided, so why are assumptions being made on the results of delimitation? Whatever will be adopted in terms of delimitation will be the result of political dialogue in which all will participate,” he said.
NEP three-language controversy
The controversy over the NEP’s three-language formula erupted over the month when Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan urged the Tamil Nadu government to implement it in the face of resistance from the state, and talk of withholding the Samagr Shikhsha funds from the Centre has also done rounds.
The three-language formula is a policy aimed at pushing students to learn three languages, of which two have to be Indian languages.
