Actor-politician Kamal Haasan on Wednesday waded into the 'Hindi imposition' and delimitation battle between Tamil Nadu's ruling DMK and the BJP-led centre, accusing the latter of trying to "turn India into Hindia" by forcing non-Hindi speaking states to accept the language.
"The centre is trying to make all states speak Hindi and win elections with a majority. Our dream is 'India'... theirs is 'Hindia'," he said at a meeting of Tamil parties met this morning, after which a resolution on 'Hindi imposition' and delimitation was sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The 'Hindia' reference was a nod to what Mr Stalin said in 2019, after Union Home Minister Amit Shah's social media post on 'Hindi Diwas'. After Mr Shah said Hindi is "the one language marking (India's) identity globally", the DMK boss had snapped back, "This is India, not Hindia".
Kamal Haasan has been vocal, as have many Tamil politicians, about concerns of Hindi being 'imposed' on the southern states. The long-simmering row, which led to clashes in the 1960s (before an Assembly election then too) erupted again last month after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan's threat - that the centre would withhold funds if its three-language policy is not implemented.
Mr Stalin had then written to PM Modi to complain of the "blackmail", and his deputy and son, Udhayanidhi Stalin, fired several sharp warnings - that Tamil Nadu is ready for another 'language war'.
READ | "Saying Silly Things": Centre On MK Stalin's "Hindi Destroyed 25..." Jab
Kamal Haasan echoed those warnings last week; "Tamilians have lost their lives for a language. Don't play with this..." he said at a meeting of his Makkal Needi Maiyam cadre in Chennai.
In his speech Kamal Haasan also demanded a freeze on delimitation, or the redrawing of boundaries of parliamentary constituencies based on current population levels.
But Tamil Nadu and other southern states fear this will leave them with fewer MPs; their fear is a population-based delimitation will mean more seats for northern states - particularly Hindi-speaking regions seen as BJP bastions - that have not controlled their populations as well.
Instead, Kamal Haasan argued, the centre must increase - in proportion to population - the number of MLAs allotted to each state. This demand has been seen as critical given Tamil Nadu, which has 234 at present - will vote in an Assembly election next year.
On the delimitation threat, he asked, "Why do you (the BJP) want to stick together something that is not broken? There is no need to send a functioning democracy to the garage so often."
Kamal Haasan also said he feared Tamil Nadu would be affected "whatever way delimitation is done" and that only non-Hindi speaking states would be affected, thereby negatively impacting the country's federal structure, a charge levied also by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin.
The actor was speaking at a gathering of over 50 Tamil political parties led by Mr Stalin.
The parties submitted a joint resolution to Mr Modi, requesting assurances that a delimitation exercise, if carried out now, will be based on 1971 population levels and then retained for another 30 years to encourage other states to be similarly successful in controlling population.
READ | "Delimitation Based On 1971 Census...": Tamil Nadu All-Party Meet To PM
Faced with increasingly agitated southern states, Union Home Minister Amit Shah sought to give assurances last week, declaring that Tamil Nadu and the others would not lose out on MP seats.
In fact, he said, they would get more seats. But Mr Stalin has pointed out this does not mean seats won't be increased for northern states, which is the other half of the problem as he sees it.
