Rahul: Delimitation Aims to Punish Tamil Nadu and Reduce Its Voice in Parliament

Chennai: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of launching a "full-scale attack" on Tamil language, culture and history, while also claiming that the delimitation exercise is designed to "punish" Tamil Nadu and reduce its voice in Parliament.

The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha asserted that "we are not going to let" Prime Minister Modi attack Tamil Nadu's language, history and culture.

"What we are seeing is a full-scale attack on Tamil culture… On your language, history and traditions," Gandhi told a crowd gathered at the Island Grounds here for the sixth edition of his 'Chhatron Ki Goonj' outreach initiative and the first in southern India.

With a video of Amit Shah playing out on the screen, Gandhi said, "As you can see in the video, he (Shah) is openly saying that Hindi should be imposed on the people of Tamil Nadu. He is publicly saying that Tamil culture, language and history are secondary to his language, his history to his tradition."

"So, how are Modi and Shah destroying the foundation of democracy? The first is language imposition. A total of Rs 3,300 crore has been withheld from Tamil Nadu via the New Education Policy. The government of India is withholding money that you should get. Second, centralisation. There is an 87 per cent fall in Tamil medium students' share of MBBS seats because of NEET," he said.

"The third is "RSSification" – 70 per cent of your state universities are without vice-chancellors because the governor wants to ensure that RSS people run your universities," the Congress leader claimed.

The latest act is one of representation as the delimitation exercise is designed to "punish" Tamil Nadu and reduce its voice in Parliament, Gandhi said.

The remarks come amid speculation that the government could bring a Constitution Amendment Bill involving delimitation for the early implementation of the women's reservation act.

Parliament has not been prorogued till now even though it was adjourned sine die on August 13, the last day of the Monsoon Session.

On April 17, the Constitution Amendment Bill to implement women's reservation in legislatures in 2029, and increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha, was defeated in the Lower House.

In his remarks at the student outreach event, Gandhi said these are attacks on the people of Tamil Nadu, on their language, culture, tradition and history.

"Modi uses fear, hatred and division to carry out these attacks. But we are not going to let Modi attack the Tamil language, history and culture, nothing... He is not going to touch Tamil Nadu," Gandhi said.

The former Congress chief also said that whenever he comes to Tamil Nadu, he learns something from the people of the state.

Describing what defines a student, Gandhi quoted Tamil social reformer Periyar saying, "Do not follow anything just because someone else has said it. Analyse and inquire into everything."

He then quoted Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar: "The deeper you dig a well in sand, more water springs up; the more you learn, the more knowledge flows."

Gandhi also interacted with students on stage, who spoke in Tamil, through an interpreter.

Asserting that curiosity is the foundation of progress, Gandhi said, "Anything you do will always begin with a question you ask. So, questioning is the foundation of curiosity. The question is at the heart of human progress. Not just that, democracy itself emerges from asking questions."

"Democracy is your right to ask questions. The Constitution protects your right to question, and the vote ensures that you get answers from the people who lead you, who run the government," Gandhi said.

An attack on curiosity is also an attack on democracy, he added.

Before Chennai, 'Chhatron ki Goonj' was held in Kota, Dehradun, Prayagraj, Pune and Indore.