AIADMK trolled for tweet on UP Deputy Chief Minister’s praise for Tamil

Chennai: The AIADMK on Sunday drew sharp reactions on social media following its tweet on the day's press conference by Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma where he praised Tamil as a classical and ancient language and said his state has Tamil as an optional language in the state university, where Telugu and Marathi too enjoy similar respect and acceptance.

“Is he asking us indirectly to have Hindi as a third language here in Tamil Nadu?” asked a twitterati while another slammed the AIADMK leadership for posting on its official twitter handle Sharma's statement on Tamil.”Are you telling us we must accept Hindi just as they have accepted our language?” asked a twitter post. Why should the AIADMK flag the UP leader's love for Tamil, as if that qualifies similar conduct by the anti-Hindi campaigners in TN, they asked.

There were also postings that complimented the UP leader for his praise of Tamil and the use of the southern language in the University of UP, known as the heartland of the Hindi cow belt.

The praise of Tamil by the UP leader and the revelation that his state university has got facilities to teach the language to those students wishing to pursue its learning as an optional language, on a more serious note, exposes the duplicity and petty politicking of the Tamil Nadu politicos assuming the guardianship of a great language hailed world over for its classical antiquity and taken into the classrooms of universities even in distant continents.

“Those people, be it administrators or students, are not scared that the great Tamil in their classrooms and research works will threaten the existence of their own language. But our political leaders and the so-called Tamil protectors insist that the learning of another language, including Hindi, threatens our own Tamil here”, said a university teacher requesting anonymity.

His colleague, however, pointed out that the protesting “is only against the imposition of Hindi and there is no problem in accepting the teaching of Hindi as an option language, only to people wishing to learn it”. There are visible signs of the BJP-led Government at the Centre trying to force Hindi on the Tamil people, he argued. Meanwhile, the UP Deputy CM had also praised the TN school education system, particularly the QR Code, which he said his state too would like to implement. He said he would initiate steps to adopt QR Code in UP school books.