The DMK on Wednesday called off the anti-Hindi imposition agitation scheduled for September 20 after a meeting with Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit. The protests planned against Union Home Minister Amit Shah's statement on Hindi Diwas, has been 'temporarily suspended' after the Governor assured the party that no attempts to impose Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states will be made by the Centre.
Elaborating on what happened at the meeting on Wednesday, a source close to Stalin explained that the Governor invited the Leader of the Opposition to understand the reason for the scheduled agitation.
"DMK Chief Stalin explained that it was over Home Minister Amit Shah's statement regarding Hindi being the only language which will unify the country. To this, the Governor replied that the Centre was not intending to bring a bill or any formal legislation to give Hindi a special status," says the source. "The Governor said that the statement was taken out of context. However Stalin demanded that Shah issue a clarification in connection to his previous statement," he adds.
Meanwhile, the Home Minister who was speaking at the Hindustan Purvoday Summit in Ranchi, Jharkhand said, “I never asked for imposing Hindi over other regional languages and had only requested for learning Hindi as the second language after one’s mother tongue.”
His latest statement was in contrast to his tweet on Saturday where he had said that only Hindi could unify India.
DMK sources point out that for the Centre to reach out to them and attempt to clarify their stance, is a victory in itself.
"Nowhere in India will a Governor call an opposition party, explain the Centre's stand and request that a protest be withdrawn. We did not expect Amit Shah to actually issue a clarification so soon after the meeting," says the DMK source. "Therefore, we decided that we could temporarily call of the protest", he added.
In a press meet held at the DMK headquarters, MK Stalin stated, "We have called off the agitation for now. But DMK will protest any effort to impose Hindi in the future."
Another possible reason for the Centre's uneasiness with the DMK's planned protest, according to sources, could be the meeting that is reportedly going to be held at Mamallapuram between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping next month. All efforts are being made, say DMK sources, to avoid any issues in the state ahead of the meeting.