(TIE)
Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman today assured there would be no imposition of Hindi and lashed out at the DMK for accusing the Centre of “wanton thrusting” of the language. “There is no thrusting of Hindi” as alleged by DMK working president M K Stalin, she said here. Sitharaman, the Union minister of state for commerce and industry, sought to turn the tables on him, asking what his party was doing when it was part of the previous Congress-led UPA regime, indicating there was imposition of Hindi then.
She referred to the ‘Ek Bharat Shresht Bharat’ scheme launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi which involved exchange of people of different states. This would include non-native speakers of Tamil to get to know about the language and Tamil Nadu, she told reporters at the airport.
“When we have a Prime Minister who makes such efforts, where does the (question of) Hindi imposition come from? It is not fair on part of Stalin to allege Hindi imposition as DMK, which was part of the UPA, could not stop imposition of Hindi (during UPA regime),” she said.
