New Delhi: The Lok Sabha on Monday (March 10) saw heated scenes after Union minister for education Dharmendra Pradhan accused the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led (DMK-led) Tamil Nadu government of being “dishonest,” “ruining the future of Tamil Nadu students,” calling them “uncivilised,” “undemocratic” and alleged that the party was using language for politics to deny the state’s students of a pan-India education model, while the DMK accused the minister of insulting the state.
Pradhan’s statement came during the question hour when DMK MP T. Sumathy said that around Rs 2,000 crore meant for Tamil Nadu under PM SHRI (PM Schools for Rising India) had been diverted to other states due to the Tamil Nadu government’s opposition to NEP (National Education Policy) calling it a “deathknell to cooperative federalism”.
“I want to ask the honourable minister, is it right to use the financial allocation which is meant for school education for children, as a revengeful tool against the state government? I would like to ask the union government, will it assure parliament that no state will face fund cuts for rejecting a policy not mandated by law?” she said.
Pradhan then accused the DMK government of taking a “u-turn” after agreeing to sign an MoU for PM SHRI and accused the Tamil Nadu government of using language passion to do politics and denying the state’s students a “pan-India education model”.
“The government of India is open and ready. The kind of discussions we had with the Tamil Nadu government in previous months. They have changed their stance,” said Pradhan.
“At one point, the Tamil Nadu government was ready to sign an MoU with the government of India for accepting PM SHRI. Few of my MP colleagues came to see me. The honourable member who raised the question also came to see me along with the Education minister of Tamil Nadu. They agreed but they had a u-turn. The government of India is open on this issue,” he added.
Pradhan said that other non-BJP led states had implemented PM SHRI despite having reservations to the NEP and called the DMK-led Tamil Nadu government “dishonest”, “undemocratic” and “uncivilised”.
“Many more non-BJP states, like Karnataka led by the Congress, have [expressed] some reservations verbally on NEP but they are implementing PM SHRI. Himachal is implementing PM SHRI. The government of India is giving financial allocation to Tamil Nadu. They are dishonest. They are not committed to Tamil Nadu students. They are ruining the future of Tamil Nadu students. Their only job is to raise language passion. They are doing politics, mischief. This is unfortunate. They are misleading the nation. They are doing injustice to students of Tamil Nadu, they are ruining the future of Tamil Nadu students. They are undemocratic, uncivilised.
“They are denying the right of Tamil Nadu students to have a pan-India education model. The Government of India is ready. On March 15, they have signed MoU. Why did they back out? Their chief minister was ready to accept. Just be honest to the people of Tamil Nadu. They are dishonest,” Pradhan said.
Also read: Why the Three-Language Formula Threatens South India
Amid loud protests from the opposition benches, and slogans of “We want justice” the House was adjourned briefly. When the House proceedings resumed at noon, DMK MP Kanimozhi said that the minister had “insulted” the people of Tamil Nadu by calling them “uncivilised”.
“I am very pained and hurt that the minister has called the members of Parliament, the Tamil Nadu government and the people of Tamil Nadu uncivilised,” she said.
“The truth is members met the minister to say that funds have to be released to Tamil Nadu and the minister for education [from Tamil Nadu] was also there in the delegation and we had clearly said that we have issues with the NEP and we cannot accept it in full because three-language policy is not acceptable to the people of Tamil Nadu. The truth is that the chief minister of Tamil Nadu has written to the minister and the prime minister saying that we have issues with the NEP and it cannot be accepted in total and the funds have to be released and we requested for the funds to be released. The MPs of Tamil Nadu have never accepted the three-language policy,” Kanimozhi added.
While Pradhan in response said that he “withdraws” the word, and Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla too agreed to remove it from the records, the education minister again reiterated that leaders from Tamil Nadu had agreed to NEP.
“Those who do not have concrete facts, they only want to shout back. They are creating an uproar and only misleading others. Today is March 10 and 20-21 days are left before the completion of this financial year,” Pradhan told reporters outside parliament.
“The discussions held with the Tamil Nadu government earlier, must be agreed to. We have no issues in allocating funds under PM SHRI. Those who don’t want to join the PM SHRI MoU signing programme for politics, I appeal to them, PM SHRI is in everyone’s interest. In Tamil Nadu language of instruction in government schools will be Tamil. What is your opposition? I don’t understand,” he added.
In a statement on X, Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin hit back at Pradhan and demanded to know whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed with Pradhan’s comments.
“Union minister for education Dharmendra Pradhan, who assumes that he is a king and speaks with arrogance, should mind his tongue. You, who have been deceiving [us] by not giving funds to Tamil Nadu, are saying Tamil Nadu MPs are uncivilised? You are insulting the people of Tamil Nadu. Is honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi accepting this?” he wrote.
Stalin shared a copy of a letter sent by Pradhan to him and asked whether he was the one who said that the MoU sent by the Tamil Nadu government for PM SHRI rejected the NEP and the three-language policy.
Stalin said that they will not be forced to implement the policy and demanded to know whether Pradhan will “release the funds for the students of Tamil Nadu” which was collected as tax from the state.
Also read: Three Speeches, One Struggle
Meanwhile in Rajya Sabha, DMK members staged a walkout after the deputy chairman did not allow a discussion on delimitation after MPs from the party had submitted a notice under Rule 267 to highlight that the impending exercise could penalise Tamil Nadu for implementing successful population control measures.
During the zero hour, DMK MP Sumathy again rose to raise an exception to Pradhan’s statement and said that he had “misled” the house.
“We had never agreed to the NEP and our chief minister had said that this is pressurising the state government. I want the Union government to remember that education is still in the concurrent list. And this is the death knell of the federal structure and this is just playing with the school children, denying them funds and then saying you are working for uplifting them. This is a farce,” Sumathy said.
