Amid ongoing debates over the National Education Policy’s (NEP) three-language policy, political leaders and prominent figures from the south have voiced contrasting opinions. While Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin criticised the policy, Rajya Sabha MP Sudha Murthy and Kerala’s education minister R. Bindu expressed support for multilingual education.
Addressing a public meeting in Chennai on Wednesday, Stalin said, "We oppose NEP as it will completely destroy Tamil Nadu's education growth.”
In Delhi, Murthy, who is the chairperson of Infosys Foundation, and a writer in English and Kannada whose works have been translated into major Indian languages reflected on her own experience with languages, and said, “I have always believed that one can learn multiple languages and I myself know 7-8 languages. So I enjoy learning and children can learn a lot.”
In Kerala, the education minister said that the state wants students to learn multiple languages and has even established a Centre of Excellence for Language Networking.
"We want students to learn foreign languages as well, which is why we have set up the Centre of Excellence for Language Networking," she said.
But the minister reiterated that the state opposes the imposition of Hindi.
"We embrace tolerance towards all languages. Imbibing and assimilating different languages has been a part of Kerala's culture from the very beginning," Bindu said.
She further noted that Kerala's long coastline has historically attracted various groups of foreigners to the state, leading to linguistic diversity.
"From then on, we have embraced different foreign languages. Now, our policy is to encourage students to study multiple languages, with Malayalam, of course, being given prominence," the minister added.
Earlier in the day, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman criticised the DMK government for opposing the three language policy.
Sitharaman also lashed out at Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) over its opposition to the three language policy, accusing the Stalin government of creating a “political mess” in Tamil Nadu and denying children their “right to learn” inviting a backlash from southern state MPs, who remained steadfast in its opposition to NEP.