DMK President M K Stalin on Tuesday played political hardball by asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to "walk the talk" on his love for Tamil by announcing it as one of the official languages in the country.
Making a statement that sounded both politically significant and taking a subtle dig at the BJP and Modi, Stalin appreciated the Prime Minister for realising the worth of Tamil as a language and identity and said he felt happy about the statement.
It was a welcome change from BJP's policy to push Sanskrit and Hindi down the throat on non-Hindi speaking states, Stalin said and added that there was every effort to impose Hindi on Tamil Nadu.
"It is of great significance that the Prime Minister mentioned that Tamil is the oldest language in the world. Not just the DMK but every Tamil in the world would welcome the statement,"he said.
Noting that the DMK has been demanding that all 22 regional languages notified in the Eight Schedule of Constitution should be declared as official languages, Stalin hoped that the BJP would lend its ear to the demand.
" Now that the Prime Minister has praised Tamil publicly, everyone except him to walk the talk by declaring Tamil as one of the official languages of the country. We hope that the Prime Minister will act on his own words," he said.