DMK leader Dayanidhi Maran.
Credit: PTI Photo
DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran’s 2019 speech, in which he said that people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar who speak only Hindi end up “cleaning toilets” and as construction workers in Tamil Nadu whose youth work as software engineers due to their English proficiency, has now stoked a massive row.
Not just the BJP, the ruling RJD in Bihar, which is a member of the I.N.D.I.A. alliance in which DMK is an integral part, condemned Maran’s statement, saying it was unbecoming of a leader of a party that believed in social justice to have made such a remark.
BJP leader Shahnawaz Hussain said it has become a habit for leaders of the Opposition alliance to talk “ill” about northern states, while his colleague and former Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi demanded that the JD (U) and RJD should send the DMK out of I.N.D.I.A. alliance for insulting the people of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
RJD leader and Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav said it would have made sense if Maran had highlighted caste iniquities and pointed out that only people from some social groups took up such hazardous jobs.
“But to speak disparagingly of the entire populace of Bihar and UP is reprehensible. We condemn it. We believe that people should be respectful towards those coming from other parts of the country. We look upon DMK as a party that shares our ideal of social justice. Its leaders should avoid saying things that run counter to the ideal,” Yadav said.
‘Divide and rule card’
Though Maran made the speech in June 2019 while attending an event to commemorate the 96th birth anniversary of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi, a 24-second video clip of his 10-minute speech, which was accessed by DH, went viral on X and other social media platforms on Saturday night.
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla said the I.N.D.I.A parties were attempting to play the divide and rule card once again.
In the speech, Maran said Prime Minister Narendra Modi was “obsessed” with Hindi and was trying to impose the language on states like Tamil Nadu only to “appease” the Hindi-speaking people who voted for him overwhelmingly. His speech came after the draft National Education Policy (NEP) recommended a third language, which political parties in Tamil Nadu interpreted as an indirect “imposition of Hindi.”
English learning
Talking about the anti-Hindi imposition stance of the DMK, Maran said his party had advocated learning English along with Tamil, which allowed youngsters from the state to land high-profile software jobs.
“Who is K Sivan? He is the chief of Isro. He studied at a government school, and now he is in charge of building satellites. Sundar Pichai, a Tamil, now heads Google. But, he would have ended up as a construction worker had he learnt (only) Hindi. Tamils learn English, find jobs in the IT sector, and earn good salaries,” Maran said in the video.
“They stressed on Hindi. Who is involved in constructing buildings today? People who only learn Hindi in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh come to Tamil Nadu, learn Tamil, and construct houses and clean toilets. This is what will happen if one learns Hindi,” Maran added.