It has been a daily struggle for the DMK government with an adversarial BJP-led Union Government in the last four years to protect the legitimate rights of Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister MK Stalin said on Sunday.
“With the previous AIADMK government having signed on a charter of slavery for the entry of NEET (entrance test for MBBS), UDAY electricity scheme, hiking property taxes, Tamil Nadu has been facing severe economic consequences,” Stalin said in a letter to the party cadre ahead of the death anniversary of DMK patriarch and his father M Karunanidhi. To protect the rights of the state, the DMK government has been using the floor of Parliament to raise these issues, besides waging a legal battle in the courts, he added.
“While Sanskrit received financial largesse, it is a pittance for Tamil, recognised first as a classical language, from the anti-Tamil Union Government, which is bent upon imposing Hindi through the New Educational Policy (NEP 2020), which will result in the extinction of regional languages. The NEP will bring back caste-based education by denying opportunities to the marginalised and backward communities. Further, it is attempting to impose the hegemonic Aryan culture and is refusing to publish the scientifically validated Keeladi excavation, which establishes the antiquity of Tamil culture,” he said.
“At a time when Governors are being used to murder democracy in states where the BJP could not come to power, the Tamil Nadu Government’s legal battle in the Supreme Court has established the supremacy of elected state governments. This has helped instil confidence in democracy not only for Tamil Nadu but for all states,” he said and blamed the principal opposition AIADMK in Tamil Nadu for teaming up with the BJP instead of strengthening the struggle. “By aligning with the BJP, which is discriminating against the state, the AIADMK is committing a grave betrayal, leaving the AIADMK cadres themselves aghast,” he added.
Charging AIADMK general secretary and Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS) with peddling lies in his statewide campaign, Stalin said, “Having earned an incurable stain by crawling before the BJP for the alliance, he has been parroting only lies wherever he goes.