A Hindi month celebration at Doordarshan Chennai sparked a political controversy on Friday with chief minister MK Stalin criticising the event and later governor RN Ravi, after performers missed a sentence with references to “Dravida” while singing the Tamil Nadu state anthem at the function.
Later in the day, Ravi –– who was the chief guest at the function –– hit back, terming Stalin’s comments “regrettable” and accusing the CM of making a racist remark against him.
“I strongly condemn the celebration of Hindi month valedictory function along with the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Chennai Doordarshan. Hon’ble @PMOIndia, The Constitution of India does not grant national language status to any language. In a multilingual nation, celebrating Hindi Month in non-Hindi-speaking states is seen as an attempt to belittle other languages,” Stalin wrote in a post on X.
“Therefore, I suggest that holding such Hindi-oriented events in non-Hindi speaking states could be avoided, and instead, the celebration of the local language month in the respective states should be encouraged.”
He also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasising that the Constitution did not grant national language status to any language, and Hindi and English are only for official purposes. He suggested avoiding Hindi language programmes in non-Hindi-speaking states.
“It has been announced that the closing ceremony of the Hindi Month celebrations and Golden Jubilee celebrations of Chennai Television will be held this evening at Doordarshan Tamil in Chennai, and Tamil Nadu governor RN Ravi will be the special guest. This blatant attempt to impose Hindi is strongly condemned,” he wrote.
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