Tamil Nadu minister's jibe at 'Hindi will fetch job' claims, cites pani puri sellers

"Many said you will get jobs if you learn Hindi. Is it so...look here in Coimbatore, who is selling Pani Puri. It is them (Hindi-speaking individuals)," Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy said.

Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu): Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister K Ponmudy on Friday took a veiled dig at those claiming that learning Hindi will help one to get jobs. He indicated that those who are selling Pani Puri in the Coimbatore are Hindi-speaking people only.

"Many said you will get jobs if you learn Hindi. Is it so...look here in Coimbatore, who is selling Pani Puri. It is them (Hindi-speaking individuals)," he said. The Minister made the remarks at the 37th convocation of Bharathiar University in Coimbatore in presence of the Governor of Tamil Nadu R N Ravi who presided over the incident.

Ponmundy said that the students of the State were ready to learn any language and were not against any language including Hindi. He also said that the State Government was willing to adopt the good schemes of the New Education Policy but there should not be any imposition and the student can opt for any language as their third language. He also said that the State Government will follow the prevailing system now.

"We don't want to agitate against the good things in NEP. We are ready to follow them. But at the same time, in Tamil Nadu, we should have our own language. India is a land of unity in diversity. In Tamil Nadu, we should follow our own education system...we should follow certain good policies from the NEP," Ponmudy said.

There was a time when society barred education to women. However, the 'Dravidian Model' has created a system, where education was for all and women students outnumber their male counterparts in higher education, as this is social reformer Periyar's land, the Minister said.

Refuting the Minister's claim, the Governor said that there is no such attempt by the Centre to impose Hindi. "An impression is created by some people that the Central government is imposing a language on Tamil Nadu or anyone. I think that is far from the truth. That is not correct," he said.

"In fact, the whole thrust of NEP was to do the learning and teaching in the mother tongue, the regional language. In the recent conference of the Chief Justices and Chief Ministers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had insisted and raised the issue-- to make the regional language the state language and that of the judiciary," the Governor said.

"We have to encourage, incentivize, do all that we can to enrich and spread all the languages of the country. Tamil is a very very ancient language of the country, very very rich language. Thousands of years back our great learned people have created wealth of literature, knowledge. this should be available to the people in the rest of the country as well," he added. The Governor said that there There is no question of imposition of Hindi or any other language on anyone. We have to encourage and enrich every language and Hailed Tamil as the "oldest" language.

(With agency inputs)