Chennai : Tamil Nadu is digging in on its two-language policy, refusing to provide land for Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas even a day after the Supreme Court. School Education Minister and TVK leader Rajmohan Arumugam said Tamil Nadu would continue to stand by its two-language policy and withhold land for Navodaya schools. “As far as Tamil Nadu is concerned, the bilingual policy has been there in the past and continues to be there today.
Justice Nagarathna has given her opinion, not an order. We are not against Hindi or any other language. We should give importance to Tamil on this soil, Rajmohan added. Leader of the Opposition and DMK leader Udhayanidhi Stalin welcomed the TVK government’s decision to stand firm on the state’s two-language policy. He also called for a special session of the Tamil Nadu Assembly, if necessary, to pass a resolution against the establishment of centrally sponsored Navodaya schools in the state.
Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas are centrally funded, co-educational residential schools administered by the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti under the Union Ministry of Education. The schools follow a three-language formula, with Hindi forming part of the language structure in the system. They were established to provide quality residential education, particularly to talented students from rural areas. The Centre has sought the establishment of Navodaya schools in Tamil Nadu as part of its wider network of such institutions across the country.
Tamil Nadu argued that the issue involved questions of its policy-making powers and cooperative federalism. Its position has been that the Navodaya scheme is a Central initiative and that the state should not be compelled to facilitate it when it has chosen to follow a different education and language framework. The Centre, on the other hand, has maintained that Tamil Nadu should identify and provide suitable land, while the Centre would bear the cost of establishing the schools.
The Supreme Court’s latest observations came while hearing Tamil Nadu’s challenge to directions concerning the establishment of Navodaya schools in the state. The Bench questioned Tamil Nadu’s resistance to Hindi in the context of the schools and urged the state to reconsider its position. Justice BV Nagarathna told the state to “change its mindset” and observed that it could not take the position that Hindi would not be taught on the soil of Tamil Nadu. The court also cautioned that individual states could not function like separate countries.
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