Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday asserted that the New Education Policy (NEP) would not impose Hindi on states and that the opposition against it in Tamil Nadu was "political".
Pradhan said the NEP has made it clear that the education would be based on the mother tongue.
"We have never said in NEP 2020 that only Hindi will be there; we have only said that education will be based on mother tongue, in Tamil Nadu, it will be Tamil," he told reporters in Delhi.
#WATCH | Haridwar, Uttarakhand | On three-language policy, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan says, "... National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 should give importance to Indian languages... All Indian languages have equal rights, and all should be taught in the same way.… pic.twitter.com/e7O3G1CLx4
— ANI (@ANI) March 2, 2025
The NEP and the three-language policy have led to a slugfest between Tamil Nadu and the Centre with the former accusing the Narendra Modi government of trying to impose Hindi.
"I don't want to answer to the political ambitions of few people. NEP 2020 is focused on different languages of India, be it Hindi, Tamil, Odia, or Punjabi. All the languages have equal importance. In Tamil Nadu, few are opposing because of politics," Pradhan said.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has been targeting the Centre over the language issue and asserted that Tamil Nadu would not allow Hindi and Sanskrit to dominate Tamil.
"The DMK will always be in the forefront in the struggle to protect the state and also its language," Stalin recently said in a letter to party cadres.
"This is not just a language imposition but an invasion intended on Tamil culture with a conspiracy to Sanskritise this land," he alleged.
On Friday, the chief minister hardened his stance and said it was unnecessary to force any language as a third language in schools in the age of Artificial Intelligence.
"BJP leaders advocating Hindi insist, 'You must know Hindi to buy tea, pani puri, or use toilets in North India,'" he said in a post on X.
