Stalin’s attack on saffronisation

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK chief MK Stalin on Friday said that more than one million families in the state have joined the party’s outreach campaign Oraniyil Tamil Nadu. According to the DMK’s official website, “Oraniyil Tamil Nadu is an initiative dedicated to protecting the land, language and honour of the state. In a social media post on X, the Chief Minister said that on September 15, which is the birth anniversary of former Chief Minister late CN Annadurai, people will take a pledge to support the campaign at more than 68,000 booths across the district. The social media post reads, “More than one million families have joined our #OraniyilTamilNadu movement to protect the soil – language – honour of Tamil Nadu. On the birth anniversary of the great scholar Anna, leaders of Tamil Nadu, (September 15), they will come together and take this pledge in more than 68,000 booths across the district.” Stalin has launched this program to protect the land and people of Tamil Nadu, in which he has emphasized that the central government has worked against the welfare of the people and their culture and has failed to provide adequate funds to the state. To take this message to the public, the DMK has launched its statewide outreach campaign Oraniyil Tamil Nadu. This campaign, which started on July 1, is being run successfully in all the districts and is still going on. On September 20 and 21, the program will include district-level meetings of the DMK. Several public meetings will be held across Tamil Nadu and Chief Minister Stalin will participate in the last meeting and deliver the concluding speech. Notably, the DMK-led Tamil Nadu government has opposed the three-language policy proposed in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, which recommends teaching three languages. The three-language controversy has rocked the 2020 elections. The implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) of 2015 has created a deadlock between the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government. The DMK government has termed the three-language policy as a “saffronisation policy” aimed at promoting Hindi rather than the development of India. The DMK government has also been vocal in its opposition to the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and the Goods and Services Tax (GST).