Chennai: MDMK general secretary Vaiko has announced that a protest to smear tar over and erase the Hindi letters on the milestone markers along the Thanjavur-Salem National Highway will be held tomorrow (Nov. 12).
In a statement issued by him, he said, “The National Highways Authority has begun work on installing boundary stones and renewing the inscriptions on old boundary stones on all national highways in Tamil Nadu. Place names are being mentioned not only in Tamil and English, but also in Hindi. As the first phase, this work has been carried out on the national highway between Thanjavur and Salem.
When place names and distances were written in Hindi as well as Tamil and English on the milestone markers along the Coimbatore–Pollachi National Highway, the Madurai–Dhanushkodi National Highway, and the Trichy–Dindigul National Highways, the MDMK, other political parties, and Tamil movements strongly opposed it. Our party members painted over and erased the Hindi lettering with tar.
Now, once again, the National Highways Authority, on the orders of the Central Government, has written in Hindi on milestone markers in Tamil Nadu, paving the way for Delhi’s linguistic dominance. On August 1, 1952, Periyar announced a protest to paint over and erase Hindi letters at railway stations in Tamil Nadu. Hindi letters were erased at 600 railway stations.
At the Tiruchi railway station, Periyar painted over and erased Hindi. On the same day, the DMK, under Anna’s leadership, carried out the same protest. Tamil Nadu’s firm language policy since 1967 has been that it can never sign away its freedom and become a slave to Hindi dominance.
In this situation, MDMK is carrying out a protest, following in the footsteps of Periyar and Anna, to paint over and erase the Hindi letters written on the milestone stones along the Thanjavur-Salem national highways.
On November 12, MDMK executives, led by party high-level committee member Aadhuthurai Murugan, along with Thanjavur South District Secretary Tamilselvan, Thanjavur North District Secretary Saravanan, Tiruvarur South District Secretary Balachandran, Tiruvarur North District Secretary Kasi Sivavadivelu, Nagapattinam District Secretary Ramancheri Sridhar, and Mayiladuthurai District Secretary Kolanji alias Chandramohan, will carry out the task of smearing tar over and erasing the Hindi inscriptions written on the milestone stones along the Thanjavur-Salem National Highway (NH-136).
If the National Highways Authority continues with this same stance, I also inform you that after November 29, the protest under my leadership to smear tar and erase the Hindi letters on milestone stones will continue,” Vaiko said.
