A signboard displaying the Hindi word “Sahyog,” was brought down at the Tiruppur railway station in Tamil Nadu after commuters complained that they didn’t understand the meaning of it.
The new signboard was recently installed and replaced the earlier one which had “Sevai Mayyam” written in Tamil, and “information centre” written in English and “sahyog” in Hindi.
The newer one however, translated the “Sahyog” in all the three languages, making it difficult for people who do not understand Hindi to know the meaning of it. This was flagged to the authorities and a decision was taken to bring it down.
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The move was criticized by Paattali Makkal Katchi (PKM) founder S Ramadoss who called it an attempt to impose Hindi language in the state.
Tamil Nadu Congress Vice President Sm Hidayatullah reacted saying that the Centre was “imposing Hindi wherever possible” and that it is a problem for the Tamilians to communicate in the language.
“Sahayog is a Hindi word, they should write it in English and Tamil also the word ‘Sahayog’ helpline.” he said.
Hidayatullah also raised the issue of Hindi-speaking staff in public offices and how communication with them becomes difficult for Tamilians. “In railways station, post offices and Centre government offices, there are 80-90% employees are Hindi speaking people from north India, we are not opposing them to come but the present should be 20 to 30 present, it is problem for the Tamil people to communicate with them.”
“I urge the central government to not do this, it will create hatred among Indians,” he added.
This comes a few weeks after Union Home Minister Amit Shah praised the Tamil language and urged the state government to provide medical and technical education in Tamil to promote the language.
“Tamil is one of the oldest languages in the world. Its grammar is also one of the oldest. I request the Tamil Nadu government to provide medical and technical education in the Tamil language so that Tamil-medium students can benefit and conduct research and development in their mother tongue,” Shah said.
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