Stalin warns against Hindi imposition and NEET

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) on Saturday held its South Zone Youth Wing Conference in Virudhunagar district, drawing a large turnout of party cadres and youth volunteers from across southern Tamil Nadu, as the party sharpened its ideological pitch on language, social justice and education.

Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK president M.K. Stalin, accompanied by deputy chief minister and Youth Wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin, addressed the gathering, reaffirming the party’s long-standing stand against what it sees as attempts to undermine Tamil identity and social justice through centralised national policies.

Speaking at the conference, Stalin reiterated the DMK’s commitment to protecting the Tamil language, recalling the historic role of the Dravidian movement in safeguarding it through decades of struggle. He alleged that fresh attempts were being made to impose Hindi under the pretext of the three-language policy.

“Whenever our mother tongue, Tamil, was under threat, we fought relentlessly to protect it,” the chief minister said. “Even today, under the guise of the three-language policy, efforts are on to impose Hindi. They believe that if our language is destroyed, our identity will disappear. We will never allow that.”

Stalin also trained his guns on education policies framed by the Centre, particularly the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), which he claimed had tilted the playing field against students from rural areas and economically weaker sections. He said reservation policies had historically corrected entrenched inequalities in education and employment, but warned that uniform national examinations risked reversing those gains.

“There was a time when education and jobs were denied to many communities. Reservation opened the doors. Now, through exams like NEET, there is an attempt to recreate the old order and close those doors once again,” he said.

Addressing the youth wing, deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin called on volunteers to intensify grassroots outreach and take the DMK’s message of social justice, linguistic pride and state rights to every household.

The conference forms part of the DMK’s broader mobilisation drive ahead of the next assembly elections, with zonal-level meets being organised across the State to energise cadres and consolidate organisational strength.

Party leaders said the youth wing would be at the forefront of carrying forward Dravidian ideology and countering policies they believe are against Tamil Nadu’s interests. The event concluded with resolutions reaffirming the DMK’s commitment to federalism, social equity, and the protection of Tamil language and culture.

With IANS inputs