Union Govt Stalls Rs 3,500 Crore for Two Years, But Tamil Nadu Holds Firm on Two-Language Policy
New Delhi: Tamil Nadu's school education minister Rajmohan Arumugam on Tuesday (May 20) made it clear that the newly-formed Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) government will continue to follow the state’s long-standing two-language policy and will not accept the Union government’s three-language formula or the PM SHRI ((Prime Minister Schools for Rising India) school scheme. Further, he underlined that the state government will not "yield to any indirect pressure".
"Just as women's rights and land rights are fundamental principles of TVK, the two-language policy is also one of our proclaimed policies," Rajmohan was quoted as saying by The New Indian Express.
The minister's comments came after his earlier remark that he would "look into it" when asked about the PM SHRI school scheme had triggered questions about whether the government was rethinking its position. Under the scheme, students are mandatorily supposed to learn three languages up to class 10, at least two of which must be native Indian languages.
“Our government would not allow a three-language formula to be followed in schools. We will not yield to any indirect pressure and the TVK will remain steadfast, without any compromise, in its stand on the two-language policy,” Rajmohan was quoted as saying by The Hindu.
The Union government has linked the release of Samagra Shiksha funds to the state's adoption of the PM SHRI scheme. Over Rs 3,500 crore owed to Tamil Nadu for 2024-25 and 2025-26 is still withheld by the Union government.
"This is money meant for students, not for government officials or us. It should not be stopped for any reason," the education minister said, as per TNIE.
To make his case for English as a sufficient second language, Rajmohan pointed to Singapore. He noted that former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew chose English to connect his country with the world while building it from the ground up. "English is enough. There will be no compromise on our ideology," he said.
Even the previous M.K. Stalin-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government opposed the three-language formula in the state calling it a "covert mechanism to expand Hindi into non-Hindi speaking regions".
West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala remain the only states yet to implement the PM SHRI scheme.
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