MK Stalin slams LIC for Hindi-only website in Tamil Nadu
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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has strongly criticized the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) for prioritizing Hindi on its website, calling it a "propaganda tool for Hindi imposition."
The Chief Minister took to X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday to demand an "immediate rollback of this linguistic tyranny."
"The LIC website has been reduced to a propaganda tool for Hindi imposition. Even the option to select English is displayed in Hindi," Stalin said, expressing outrage over the change.
The move also drew criticism from Dr. S Ramadoss, founder of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), who called the preference for Hindi unacceptable. "LIC has a vast customer base in Tamil Nadu, yet the website's main page is in Hindi, forcing users to search for English options. This is an insult to Tamil Nadu customers," he said, urging LIC to make English the default language for its homepage.
Dr. Ramadoss highlighted that even consumer products sold in Tamil Nadu often feature labels in Tamil or English. "LIC should recognize that its services cater to people across India, not just Hindi speakers," he added.
Tamil Nadu has a long-standing history of opposing the imposition of Hindi, dating back to the 1930s. Anti-Hindi protests in the 1960s were instrumental in bringing Stalin’s party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), to power. The protests led then-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to assure non-Hindi-speaking states that English would remain the link language.
In October, Chief Minister Stalin had also clashed with Governor RN Ravi over a missing line in Tamil Nadu’s state anthem at an event, accusing the Governor of "vilifying the Dravidian race" and pushing for Hindi imposition.
The state has consistently opposed the three-language formula proposed in the National Education Policy, which mandates learning Hindi as a third language.
The LIC website controversy is the latest in a series of incidents that have fueled Tamil Nadu's resistance to Hindi. Last year, Tamil Nadu opposed a directive by India's food safety authority to label curd packets as "Dahi" in Hindi, resulting in a rollback after criticism from the state government and milk producers.
