DMK MP Rebuffs Hindi Overdose With Tamil Response: Will The Centre Respond Suitably?

In a perfect rebuff to the Centre that has been replying to Tamil MPs in Hindi, a DMK MP shot back in Tamil demanding that the Rail Ministry communicate with him in English. Articulating popular suspicion that the Centre was pushing use of Hindi in Tamil Nadu that did not accept it as official language, DMK leader and Rajya Sabha MP Pudukkottai MM Abdulla protested when he received a reply from Union Minister of State, Ravneet Singh Bittu in Hindi. It was in reference to a special mention he had raised about food quality and cleanliness in the railways in the Rajya Sabha in August. He shot back a note to Singh in Tamil that he did not understand the contents of his letter and suggested that he communicate to him in English.   “This is not the first time that I’m receiving a letter in Hindi from the Rail Ministry. They have done it twice before –once responding to a zero hour mention and again to department related query”, pointed out the MP. Was he blaming the new MoS Bittu? Abdulla feels that the minister has no role. “Maybe it is the agenda of Modi-Shah to impose it on a state like Tamil Nadu where Hindi is not acceptable.” Abdullla shared copies of both the letters in social media sometime back. A first term MP, Abdulla says “I make it very clear to people that I do not know a word of Hindi”. He has been a MP since 2021.