A Linguistic War Ignites in Tamil Nadu, Ruling DMK’s Defiance Deepens Rift With Center

Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin, issued a fiery rebuke to the central government on Friday, accusing it of stoking a linguistic and political fire by pushing the National Education Policy (NEP) and withholding funds. Speaking at a public event in Cuddalore, where he inaugurated projects worth over Rs 704 crore and laid foundations for initiatives totaling Rs 384 crore, Stalin warned New Delhi not to “throw stones at a beehive,” vowing that neither he nor his Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party would tolerate threats to Tamil identity or the state’s autonomy.

The salvo came amid a spiraling confrontation with Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who has tied the release of Rs 2,152 crore in education funds to Tamil Nadu’s acceptance of the NEP’s trilingual framework. Stalin turned the tables, questioning who was truly politicizing education. “Is blackmailing us with funds not politics? Is imposing Hindi through NEP not politics?” he demanded, alleging that the policy seeks to erode India’s multilingual fabric in favor of a “single-language nation.” He dismissed Pradhan’s claim that the state was forfeiting Rs 5,000 crore by rejecting the PM Shri School initiative, retorting, “It doesn’t take us a second to say we won’t give you Tamil Nadu’s tax collections.”

The dispute has ignited a broader war of words, drawing in Tamil Nadu’s Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin and K. Annamalai, the state president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). On Wednesday, Udhayanidhi, speaking at a DMK rally, warned that the state’s “Go Back Modi” campaign could escalate to “Get Out Modi” if the center persisted in denying funds and imposing Hindi. Annamalai hit back in Karur, daring Udhayanidhi to repeat the slogan and promising a retaliatory “Get Out Stalin” social media blitz by Friday morning. By Thursday, Udhayanidhi upped the ante, challenging Annamalai to step onto Anna Salai, the arterial road near DMK headquarters, while Annamalai countered from Salem, vowing to arrive alone after Feb. 26 and daring the state to stop him.

At Friday’s event, where Stalin also distributed Rs 387 crore in welfare aid to nearly 45,000 beneficiaries, he framed the NEP as a Trojan horse for Hindi dominance, not educational progress. “We know how to nurture Tamil—ask those who lost their mother tongues to Hindi,” he said, accusing the BJP of communal spending while his government prioritizes welfare. Invoking cooperative federalism as a constitutional bedrock, he called the center’s approach a “curse” on India’s unity.

The clash underscores Tamil Nadu’s historic resistance to linguistic imposition, a sentiment Stalin tied to the “fighting spirit of the Tamils.” With the DMK’s Dravidian ethos at its core, he pledged to dismantle obstacles and march toward victory with public backing—a defiant stance as the state braces for a showdown with New Delhi.