Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday sharply retorted to Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin’s social media post, in which Stalin claimed that Fadnavis was facing massive backlash for imposing Hindi as the third language in the state.
Replying to the Tamil Nadu CM’s post, Fadnavis stated, “In Maharashtra, we are open to Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Sanskrit, or any language of a student’s choice that they wish to study as the third language.”
Firing a salvo at Stalin, Fadnavis said, “The main question is: Why are you not open to multilingualism and have a problem if someone wants to study in Hindi?”
In a post on X on Monday, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, commenting on the ongoing language row in Maharashtra, said, “Facing massive backlash for imposing Hindi as the third language, Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis now claims that only Marathi is compulsory in the state. This is a clear manifestation of his trepidation over the widespread public condemnation against the imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states.”
In the post, he had asked PM Modi and the Union Education Minister to clarify whether they endorse Fadnavis’s recent stand that no language other than Marathi is compulsory in Maharashtra as the third language under the National Education Policy.
He also sought clarification from the Centre on whether it would “release the Rs. 2,152 crore it unjustly withheld for Tamil Nadu on the premise that the state must subscribe to the teaching of a mandatory third language.”
Fadnavis, responding to the Tamil Nadu CM’s post, said, “Before seeking clarifications from Hon. PM Narendra Modi ji, you need a deep understanding of the National Education Policy.”
Sharing the link to the government portal about the new education policy, the Maharashtra CM said, “First, you need to study what exactly NEP is!”
Highlighting the NEP provision, he said, “NEP never insisted on or made compulsory any particular language choice but only asks students to study any two Indian languages other than English out of three.”
