Chennai, Apr 21 (PTI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Monday sought to know if the Centre endorsed his Maharashtra counterpart Devendra Fadnavis’ position that no language other than Marathi is compulsory in that state as the third language under National Education Policy (NEP).

He said after facing a massive backlash for imposing Hindi as the third language, the Maharashtra CM now claimed that only Marathi is compulsory in the state.

“This is a clear manifestation of his trepidation over the widespread public condemnation against the imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states,” Stalin said.

In a post on the social media platform ‘X’, Stalin asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to clarify if the Union government officially endorsed his position that no language other than Marathi is compulsory in Maharashtra as the third language under the NEP.

“If so, will the Union government issue a clear directive to all states affirming that the NEP does not require the compulsory teaching of a third language?” he asked.

Also, he said the Centre must release Rs 2,152 crore it “unjustly withheld for Tamil Nadu on the premise that the state must subscribe to the teaching of a mandatory third language.” On April 20, the Maharashtra government’s language consultation committee urged CM Fadnavis to revoke the decision of making Hindi a mandatory third language for students of classes 1 to 5.

Dismissing concerns over the “imposition” of Hindi in the state, Fadnavis asserted that Marathi would continue to be compulsory. PTI JSP KH