CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government, led by CM MK Stalin, has sparked fresh controversy over language representation by unveiling a new logo for the state budget, replacing the rupee symbol (?) with the Tamil letter “roo,” representing “roobai” (the Tamil word for rupee).
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai criticized the move, arguing that the rupee symbol, designed by D Udhayakumar—son of former DMK MLA N Dharmalingam—was endorsed by former CM M Karunanidhi. Calling Stalin’s decision “stupid,” they questioned the rationale behind rejecting a symbol previously approved by his father.
J Jeyaranjan, vice-chairman of the Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission, defended the decision, stating that the rupee symbol was based on the Devanagari script, prompting the state to replace it with the Tamil letter “roo.”
Annamalai took to X to express his disapproval, sharing an old image of Karunanidhi appreciating Udhayakumar’s design. “What father endorsed, son rejects,” he wrote. He further questioned, “If the DMK has a problem with ?, why didn’t it protest back in 2010 when it was officially adopted under the Congress-led UPA government, at a time when DMK was part of the ruling alliance at the Centre?”
Sitharaman criticized the move as “an example of language and regional chauvinism,” arguing that it “signals a dangerous mindset that weakens Indian unity and promotes secessionist sentiments under the pretense of regional pride.”
Udhayakumar, a professor in IIT Guwahati’s design department who originally created the rupee symbol, said the debate was unnecessary. “I used the Devanagari script as the base to design the rupee symbol. It was a competition back then, and I had to stick to the rules of the competition. Devanagari is a script that is used not just by the Hindi language but also by Sanskrit and some minor languages. So, restricting the debate to Tamil vs Hindi in this issue is unnecessary, I think,” he explained.
Former Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan also criticized the DMK government’s move, saying, “Let Stalin change his name to a Tamil name. To hide all the failures of his govt, this drama continues … DMK always talks of separatism and with an anti-national mindset, they are against national integrity.”
DMK MLA and state planning commission member N Ezhilan countered the criticism, accusing the BJP of hypocrisy. “BJP is playing a double game. For a long time they claimed to be giving importance to the mother tongue, and now, when our CM has used ‘roo’ in Tamil for rupee, they are opposing it,” he said.
Sitharaman also pointed out that the Tamil word “rupaai” has Sanskrit origins. “The Tamil word rupaai itself has deep roots in the Sanskrit word ‘rupya,’ meaning ‘wrought silver’ or ‘a worked silver coin.’ This term has resonated across centuries in Tamil trade and literature, and even today ‘rupaai’ remains the currency name in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.”
Emphasising the global significance of the rupee symbol, Sitharaman stated, “At a time when India is pushing for cross-border payments using UPI, should we really be undermining our own national currency symbol?” She added that removing “a national symbol like the rupee from the state budget document goes against that very oath that all elected representatives and authorities take under the Constitution — to uphold the sovereignty and integrity of our nation.”