Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) has strongly criticised Centre for “attempting to impose Hindi” in autonomous institutions such as National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
The party panel was responding to NCERT’s decision to rename English textbooks with Hindi titles.
“As per established practice, the title of a textbook is usually in the same language as the content of the book. Departing from this norm, NCERT has renamed English textbooks with Hindi titles, sparking strong opposition from non-Hindi speaking states,” TNCC president and MLA K Selvaperunthagai said. The TNCC chief said that as per the Official Languages (Amendment) Act, Hindi must not be imposed on non-Hindi speaking states.
He accused the BJP-led Union govt of acting in violation of its intent and undermining India’s linguistic diversity and the federal spirit.
For instance, the title of the English textbook for Class 6, which was Honeysuckle, has this year been changed to Poorvi, which is a Hindi word, and the Class 6 mathematics textbook, formerly titled Mathematics, has been renamed Ganita Prakash.
“This move is completely unacceptable. I urge the immediate withdrawal of these changes,” he said.