At Madurai event, Amit Shah apologises for not knowing Tamil: ‘One of the greatest languages of India'
Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday, during a speech in Madurai, described Tamil as one of the greatest languages of India and extended an apology for not being able to convey his message in the language.
Addressing workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madurai, Shah began his speech by apologising for not being able to speak 'one of the greatest languages of India'.
"...I apologise to the party workers of Tamil Nadu as I cannot talk to them in one of the greatest languages of India, Tamil..." Shah said.
He also assured the BJP workers that the ruling DMK will be defeated in 2026 polls and an NDA government of the BJP-AIADMK would form.
"The NDA government of the BJP-AIADMK alliance will be formed here in 2026. I live in Delhi, but my ears are always on Tamil Nadu. MK Stalin says that Amit Shah cannot defeat DMK. He is right. It's not me, but the people of Tamil Nadu will defeat you," he said.
Amit Shah's remarks about Tamil come amid a language war with the MK Stalin-led state government, which accused Centre of Hindi imposition through the proposed three-language formula under the National Education Policy (NEP). The NEP issue sparked an intense row between the Centre and the Tamil Nadu government in March this year.
Chief minister MK Stalin and Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan had trained guns at each other for weeks over the implementation of NEP in the state, with the former claiming that Centre was holding funds as a form of blackmail.
Stalin, who heads the DMK, also said that the Union government was sowing the seeds of another language war and that Tamil Nadu was ready for it. Language has long been an emotive issue for the state that was rocked by anti-Hindi agitation in the 1960s.
On the other hand, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan had stressed that the National Education Policy 'upholds the principle of linguistic freedom' and 'does not advocate the imposition of any language' on states.
Pradhan had also appealed to him to not 'politicise education' and 'rise above political differences'.
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