In the midst of a continuing dispute over the National Education strategy’s three-language strategy, Andhra Pradesh Deputy chairman Minister and Janasena Party (JSP) chairman K Pawan Kalyan has stated that he “never opposed” the Hindi language. In his post on X Saturday, Kalyan said he did not change his stand and that he “never opposed Hindi”. “Misinterpreting the NEP (New Education Policy of 2020) for political gains and accusing me of changing my stand shows lack of understanding. My party’s stand is linguistic freedom and choice of education for every Indian,” his post, written in Hindi, said.
In reaction to criticism of the leader’s recent remarks regarding the continuing conflict between the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam administration of Tamil Nadu and the National Democratic Alliance government at the Center, Pawan Kalyan made the comment. Kalyan’s previous comments that there were no problems when Tamil films were dubbed into Hindi for “financial gain” have drawn criticism from the DMK, which saw the policy as an attempt to force Hindi on the Tamil populace.
At the Janasena Foundation Day ceremony on Friday, he stated, “Tamil Nadu seeks revenue from Hindi-speaking states through the dubbed films.” He added that the goal of national and cultural integration is not achieved by imposing a language forcibly or by blatantly opposing it.
DMK leaders have criticized the comments, citing a “narrow understanding of Tamil Nadu’s stand” and claiming that the party was not against “anyone learning Hindi but the imposition of Hindi through National Education Policy (NEP)”. One such politician is spokesperson Dr. Syed Hafeezullah.
But Kalyan has the support of the BJP, a partner in the TDP-led NDA in Andhra Pradesh. According to Kalyan’s statement on X Saturday, “false narratives about its imposition” were being spread to deceive the public, even if the NEP 2020 did not make Hindi mandatory. “According to the NEP-2020, students have the option to learn any two Indian languages (including their mother tongue) along with a foreign language. If they don’t want to study Hindi, they can choose Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Sanskrit, Gujarati, Assamese, Kashmiri, Odia, Bengali, Punjabi, Sindhi, Bodo, Dogri, Konkani, Maithili, Meitei, Nepali, Santhali, Urdu or any other Indian language,” it said.
