Chennai: In a move that raised eyebrows, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday released the logo for the upcoming State Budget in which the ₹ symbol was replaced with the first letter ‘Ru’ from the Tamil word ‘Rubai’(rupee). While some claimed that the DMK Government had upped the ante against the Centre to register its opposition to the National Education Policy amid the row over the three language policy, there was no official explanation for the same. The DMK too did not officially state anything on the issue.
The Tamil Nadu budget is to be presented on Friday. Government sources said the Chief Minister himself had chosen this logo from a few samples sent to him.
While AIADMK leader D Jayakumar called it “theatrics” to divert attention, BJP State president K Annamalai criticised the ruling party for replacing the official rupee symbol. Incidentally, the symbol, a blend of the Devanagiri letter ‘Ra’ and Roman ‘R’, was designed by Udayakumar, who is the son of a former DMK legislator Dharmalingam, during the erstwhile Manmohan Singh Government. Back then Udayakumar, whose design was chosen from a contest by the Union Government for the first official symbol for Rupee – which until then was represented with the letters ‘Rs’, had met DMK leader M Karunanidhi and posed for a picture along with the symbol.
In an X post, Annamalai said, “The DMK government’s State Budget for 2025-26 replaces the rupee symbol designed by a Tamilian, which was adopted by the whole of Bharat and incorporated into our currency. Thiru Udhay Kumar, who designed the symbol, is the son of a former DMK MLA.?”
