BJP Tamil Nadu president K. Annamalai and other senior leaders at the meeting on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: R. Selvamuthukumar

Contending that the Joint Action Committee meeting for Fair Delimitation convened by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in Chennai on Saturday was a diversionary tactic to hide the failures of the ruling dispensation, BJP Tamil Nadu president K. Annamalai called the present DMK government the worst in the history of the State.

Addressing a public meeting organised by the BJP in support of the National Education Policy (NEP) here on Sunday, Mr. Annamalai said the DMK had been spreading malicious campaigns against the policy.

According to him, when the draft report on the NEP was presented to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he rejected a proposal on making students compulsorily learn Hindi. Mr. Modi made a suggestion for students to learn a language of their choice as their third language, Mr. Annamalai said, adding that the NEP had made it mandatory for students to be taught in their mother tongue till Class V.

The policy effectively paved the way for students of Tamil Nadu to learn only in Tamil, he added.

He further said that most schools run by [family members or acquaintances of] DMK Ministers and leaders had been teaching three languages as they were following the Central Board of Secondary Education syllabus. However, students of State government schools had been denied the opportunity to learn a third language.

The BJP leader said a huge amount was spent lavishly for the JAC meeting by inviting Chief Ministers of States ruled by Opposition parties. The Prime Minister had already made it clear that the proposed delimitation would not be based on population. It would be based on a pro rata basis. “[Union] Home Minister Amit Shah had also made it clear,” he said.

‘Relying on Tasmac’

The State, he said, was depending on the revenue generated from Tasmac to meet its expenditure. “The DMK men are ruining the State by swindling the resources generated from the sale of Indian-Made Foreign Liquor through the Tasmac,” he added.

The DMK faced the 2024 Parliamentary election with the ill-gotten money from Tasmac, he said, adding that it was also planning to face the 2026 Assembly election with the money.

Coming down heavily on the DMK government, he cited murders, murders for gain, looting, group clashes, chain-snatching and other crimes that had become an “order of the day”.

Senior leaders of the BJP Tamilisai Soundararajan, and H. Raja, among others, spoke.