M Karunanidhi slams Centre for 'thrusting Sanskrit'

CHENNAI: DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi today charged the BJP-led government at the Centre with being obstinate in "thrusting" Sanskrit and said such "linguistic, cultural chauvinism" would derail the nation from the pathway of growth.

Referring to media reports that the HRD Ministry was toying with the idea of setting up a board for Vedic education (Ved Vidya), he said the BJP regime is "obstinate in thrusting Sanskrit as it is a convenient route towards fundamentalist Hindutva."

He said the Centre was making efforts to get Hindi included in the United Nations list of official languages.

Such initiatives were being undertaken in support of Hindi and Sanskrit when "the Centre has been ignoring our request for half-a-century to declare all 22 Indian languages listed in the eight schedule of the Constitution as official languages of the Union government," Karunanidhi said.

Citing issues like the row over Sanskrit week in the past and the language's introduction in CBSE schools as a third language, he said such "such discriminatory activities based on linguistic and cultural chauvinism will derail the country from the pathway of growth."