Karunanidhi gives veiled threat to Centre on Sanskrit

Chennai: In a veiled caution to the Centre, DMK patriarch Karunanidhi on Monday said "no one should become responsible for a big stir" against Sanskrit on the lines of massive agitations against Hindi held in the state decades ago.

"I would like to tell at this juncture that no one should become responsible for a big stir against Sanksrit like the one against the imposition of Hindi," he said, upping the ante against the language without naming any party or the Union government.

Hailing Tamil as an influential and ancient language, he said, "if they say that we will give no place for Tamil... (also) seeking to wipe out the hoary tradition of the language, and if they say that we will only give room for Sanskrit, then every Tamilian should take a whip to root out that hegemony."

He made the remarks at a marriage function of a party leader' daughter here.

"Let us take a valorous vow that we will not give room for hegemony of Sanskrit. There is no place for Sanskrit in Tamil Nadu. Not only in Tamil Nadu, but in any other language speaking state, whoever imposes Sanskrit, we will drive it (the hegemony) away," he said.

DMK chief's comments comes after he had earlier slammed the Centre for being "obstinate in thrusting Sanskrit as it is a convenient route towards fundamentalist Hindutva."

He had cited media reports that the Centre may set up a board for Vedic education. He had also referred to introduction of Sanskrit as a third language in CBSE schools and efforts to get Hindi empanelled as an official UN language to buttress his point that Sanskrit and Hindi were being promoted vigorously.

Hitting back, BJP State president Tamilisai Soundararajan, in her repartee, had asked him if his party had not used posters in Hindi to grab votes of North Indians during polls.

AIADMK also had mocked at the DMK for using Hindi during elections.