Chennai: BJP on Saturday hit out at DMK chief M Karunanidhi for his criticism of the Centre's move to set up a board for Vedic education, and accused him of doing politics in the name of language.
"Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) has criticised the Central government with the aim of once again doing politics in the name of language," BJP state President Tamilisai Sounderrajan said.
Read: M Karunanidhi slams Centre on Sanskrit move
She alleged Karunanidhi, known for his strong pro-Tamil stand and promoting it, had actually "ignored" divine Tamil and asked if it wasn't a "betrayal" to the Tamil people.
"Can you deny that your party posters in Hindi were pasted in areas dominated by North Indians (during polls)? Can you deny this is brazen opportunism?" she said in a statement.
Sounderrajan questioned Karunanidhi, whose party had successfully spearheaded the anti-Hindi agitation in the state in 1960s, as to what he had done for Tamil, and asked if he could at least manage to make the language the medium of instruction in schools in Tamil Nadu.
"But if the Centre is taking steps for promoting Indian culture, he is ranting," she said.
On his comments that the Centre had been "ignoring" DMK's request for 50 years to declare all 22 Indian languages, listed in the eight schedule of the Constitution, as official languages of the Union government, she pointed out that during this period his party was a key constituent of the various central governments.
The Union HRD Ministry's move (on Vedic education) was only aimed at the students of CBSE, and that too (to take as) an optional one, she said, adding "no one is being forced" to take up Sanskrit.
The government's intention and duty was to make future generation realise the value of our culture and there was no imposition of anything, Sounderrrajan said.
"It is wrong to see an imposition of a language or language politics," she said.
Commenting on the Ved Vidya proposal, Karunanidhi had on Saturday charged the NDA government with being obstinate in "thrusting" Sanskrit, saying such "linguistic, cultural chauvinism" would derail the nation from the growth path.
