BJP Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai on Sunday claimed Hindi was the ‘compulsory’ third language during the Congress-led UPA regime and asserted it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who gave the option of studying any Indian language as a third language.<\/p>\n

Further, referring to the New Education Policy (NEP 20202), Mr Annamalai said Modi has also made “Tamil the compulsory medium of instruction from classes 1-5,” apparently in the context of Tamil Nadu.<\/p>\n

Despite ruling Tamil Nadu for many years, the DMK never made Tamil medium of instruction compulsory, he claimed.<\/p>\n

Countries like China, Germany and Japan have become ‘important’ since they impart education to children in their mother tongue, he said addressing a public meeting here.<\/p>\n

In the first two education policies, Hindi was the compulsory third language and so was the case in the draft NEP 2020, he said.<\/p>\n

However, in May 2019, “for the first time in the country, Modi changed the third language from Hindi in draft NEP to any Indian language–this is the 3-language policy,” Mr Annamalai said.<\/p>\n

Training his guns against the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu, he said the party was part of Congress-led coalition government for 10 years during which period “Hindi was compulsory third language.” “For the first time, NEP offers a third language of your choice, and you can study either Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam or even Hindi. This is the 3-language policy,” he said.<\/p>\n

On the signature campaign launched earlier this month in support of NEP 2020 and the 3-language policy, Mr Annamalai said 26 lakh signatures have been received in 18 days.<\/p>\n

Taking a jibe at the DMK, he said the party has also launched many signature campaigns, including the one against NEET.<\/p>\n

“The DMK’s anti-NEET signature campaign–what happened, how many signed. nobody knows,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Annamalai also claimed many DMK leaders, including ministers, were speaking ill of north Indians and took exception to that.<\/p>\n

CM Stalin was living in an “illusion” that his party would win over 200 seats in the 2026 Assembly polls in the state, he added.<\/p>\n

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n

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