Insta
K Annamalai.
Recently, former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer K Annamalai had joined the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) at New Delhi. Soon, the Karnataka-cadre official was named as the vice-president of the party’s Tamil Nadu unit.
With legislative elections in the southern state fast approaching in 2021, Annamalai is deemed to be integral to BJP’s plans. In a recent interview with Deccan Herald, the 36-year-old denied the accusations of ‘Hindi imposition’ that is often levelled against his party.
“Hindi was never imposed in Tamil Nadu by the BJP. Hindi was imposed in Tamil Nadu in 1965, 1968 and 1986 by the Congress governments. The three-language formula proposed in the New Education Policy (NEP) does not impose Hindi and it is very clear that the third language is optional, and it could even be a regional language,” Annamalai said.
He further added, “The only thing that Dravidian parties do is to play with the Tamil pride. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the one who propagated Tamil by quoting Thirukkural and Kanian Poongundranar. If this is the case, how can BJP be anti-Tamil?”
The leader termed this to be a baseless allegation and asserted that the Dravidian parties do not have anything constructive to engage with the BJP. That is why they keep going back to the same old dead horse and flog it, according to K Annamalai.