Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin criticized the BJP -led Central Government for alleged bias in language financing and accused him of preferring Sanskrit, neglecting Tamil and other South Indian languages. In a post on social media platform X, Stalin wrote, “Sanskrit gets crores; Tamil and other South Indian languages get nothing but tears of crocodiles. False attachment to Tamil; all money for Sanskrit!”
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The Chief Minister’s remarks came after a report by The Hindustan Times based on the Right to Information Act (RTI) and data obtained through public records, which revealed that the Center spent Rs 2,532.59 crore on promoting Sanskrit between 2014-15 and 2024-25. In contrast, the joint allocation for Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Oriya – five other classical Indian languages - was Rs 147.56 crore.
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According to the report, Tamil, which was given classical language status in 2004, received Rs 113.48 crore under the grant scheme for encouragement of Indian languages - which is 22 times less than Sanskrit. Telugu and Kannada received less than 0.5 percent of the money spent on Sanskrit, while Malayalam and Odia received less than 0.2 percent. Stalin’s statement shows a long -standing concern among the Dravidian parties that the cultural and linguistic priorities of the southern states, especially Tamil Nadu, are being sidelined to promote Sanskrit, which are mainly associated with North Indian heritage and Hindu religious tradition.