Post DMK protest, Southern Railway withdraws language circular

Last month, the Southern Railway had issued a circular asking station masters and train operation controllers to communicate in Hindi or in English and not in regional languages to avoid any miscommunication.

Calling the move ‘arrogant, DMK president MK Stalin alleged that the circular amounted to imposing Hindi and destroying the local language.

“They are repeatedly playing with the sentiments of Tamils.... If such cheap orders are not stopped with immediately, we will put a full stop to them,” Stalin posted on Facebook in Tamil. On the DMK chief’s instructions, party MP Dayanidhi Maran presented a memorandum to Southern Railway General Manager Rahul Jain and Chief Operations Manager S Anantharaman against the circular. The officials assured them of withdrawing the circular “immediate effect”. Maran later told reporters that the DMK would “make any sacrifice” to prevent what he said was the imposition of Hindi in TN.

Officials in the Southern Railway clarified that the circular was “purely internal” and issued to avoid any communication problem.