Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin
| Photo Credit: M. PERIASAMY

Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin on Monday criticised Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan for making controversial remarks about Tamil Nadu MPs (since withdrawn) in the Lok Sabha. He also urged the Union government to release the funds due to the schoolchildren of the State.

“The Union government should release the funds due to our schoolchildren immediately. Playing with the language of Tamil Nadu, its education, and rights is equivalent to kindling the fire,” Mr. Udhayanidhi said in a social media post.

Referring to the remarks made by Mr. Pradhan, the Deputy Chief Minister charged that the Union Minister had “vented his anger in Parliament by demeaning and calling us, who belong to the world’s oldest civilisation, uncivilised.”

Making such a statement about the MPs from Tamil Nadu was equivalent to insulting the people of the State who had voted for these MPs, Mr. Udhayanidhi said.

“He [Mr. Pradhan] does not know the antiquity of the Dravidian civilisation. Though he may not know the history of our civilisation, he would not have spoken the way he did if he’d known the socio-political history of the past century. Since he is ruling from Delhi, he thinks he is above us,” he said.

Mr. Udhayanidhi added that it was “not befitting his post to threaten and force people to accept the National Education Policy in its entirety or speaking in anger if we do not submit to his threat.”