Stalin govt’s budget logo swaps ₹ with Tamil letter | India News

Tamil Nadu CM M Okay Stalin releases ‘Economic Survey Report 2024-25’

CHENNAI: Opening a brand new entrance within the battle of languages, the Stalin govt in Tamil Nadu unveiled Thursday a logo for the state budget to be offered Friday, utilizing the Tamil letter “roo” — which signifies “roobai”, Tamil for rupee — to exchange the rupee image (₹).
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and TN BJP chief Okay Annamalai criticised the CM, saying the ‘₹’ image, designed by D Udhayakumar, son of former DMK MLA N Dharmalingam, was endorsed by M Karunanidhi, and Stalin was being “stupid”.
State planning fee vice-chairman J Jeyaranjan mentioned the rupee image was in Devanagari script and it was determined to drop it and use the Tamil letter “roo”. Sharing an previous image of former CM M Karunanidhi appreciating Udhayakumar for the design, Annamalai mentioned on X, “What father endorsed, son rejects.”

‘Promotes Secessionism’

Sitharaman posted on X: “If the DMK has a problem with ‘’, why didn’t it protest back in 2010 when it was officially adopted under the Congress-led UPA govt, at a time when DMK was part of the ruling alliance at the Centre?” DMK MLA and state planning fee member N Ezhilan countered: “BJP is playing a double game. For a long time they claimed to be giving importance to the mother tongue, and now, when our CM has used ‘roo’ in Tamil for rupee, they are opposing it.”

Tamil phrase ‘rupaai’ has deep roots in Sanskrit phrase ‘rupya’: Sitharaman

Calling it an “example of language and regional chauvinism”, Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned, “This is more than mere symbolism. It signals a dangerous mindset that weakens Indian unity and promotes secessionist sentiments under the pretence of regional pride.”
Udhayakumar, a professor at IIT Guwahati’s design division who designed the official rupee image, such a debate was pointless. “I used the Devanagari script as the base to design the rupee symbol. It was a competition back then, and I had to stick to the rules of the competition. Devanagari is a script that is used not just by the Hindi language but also by Sanskrit and some minor languages. So, restricting the debate to Tamil vs Hindi in this issue is unnecessary, I think,” Udhayakumar mentioned.
Former Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan joined the refrain. “Let Stalin change his name to a Tamil name. To hide all the failures of his govt, this drama continues… DMK always talks of separatism and with an anti-national mindset, they are against national integrity,” she mentioned. Sitharaman mentioned the Tamil phrase “rupaai” has hyperlinks to Sanskrit.
“The Tamil word rupaai itself has deep roots in the Sanskrit word ‘rupya’, meaning ‘wrought silver’ or ‘a worked silver coin’. This term has resonated across centuries in Tamil trade and literature, and even today ‘rupaai’ remains the currency name in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka.”
Saying the rupee image is internationally well-recognised and serves as a visual identification of India in international monetary transactions, Sitharaman requested, “At a time when India is pushing for cross-border payments using UPI, should we really be undermining our own national currency symbol?” Sitharaman added that eradicating “a national symbol like the rupee from the state budget document goes against that very oath that all elected representatives and authorities take under the Constitution — to uphold the sovereignty and integrity of our nation”.

Guarded Cong stays mum on Tamil Nadu rupee row

Congress steered away from the controversy triggered by Tamil Nadu’s choice to exchange the image of rupee which is in Hindi with Tamil letter for “Ru” within the official logo for the state’s budget. Congress stored mum on the problem that performed continuous on tv channels on Thursday.
Though allies, Congress has chosen to strike a stability between its political partnership and prudence, as DMK has taken a lead in triggering debates round its core points. Congress has not spoken but on the three language controversy that DMK has espoused in current weeks with a robust assault on the Modi govt and BJP.

DKS to attend meet known as by Stalin

Karnataka deputy CM D Okay Shivakumar was nominated on Thursday to characterize the state in a March 22 assembly convened by Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin in Chennai to agency up a joint technique towards the Union govt’s proposal for population-based delimitation.
Shivakumar was picked regardless of him advocating a nuanced strategy to Stalin’s invitation, suggesting he differed with CM Siddaramaiah, who backed the marketing campaign instantly after assembly a TN delegation in Bengaluru. Sources mentioned though Stalin wished Siddaramaiah to attend the assembly, the latter selected to depute Shivakumar due to a knee damage and a few prior commitments.

Will go for Chennai meet: Revanth

Telangana CM A Revanth Reddy on Thursday termed the proposed population-based delimitation of constituencies an imposed “limitation for southern states” that the area would counter via concerted motion, beginning with TN counterpart MK Stalin’s March 22 technique assembly in Chennai.
Revanth, who alongside with Stalin has been among the many extra vocal opponents of the Union govt’s plan, confirmed he would attend the Chennai conclave. “BJP does not have much representation from the southern states and hence wants to take revenge on these states after its (electoral) defeats in south India,” he mentioned.