DMK, PMK criticise rail users in Tamil Nadu after receiving ticket confirmation message in Hindi

CHENNAI: A DMK MP and NDA constituent PMK on Sunday criticised rail users in Tamil Nadu allegedly receiving train ticket confirmation SMS in Hindi, with the Parliamentarian lashing out at "Hindi imposition".

Southern Railway officials said that while the matter does not come under their purview, it has, however, been 'flagged' with IRCTC, the authorised e-ticketing agency.

DMK MP from South Chennai, Thamizhachi Thangapandian, took to Twitter to share a screenshot of the SMS purportedly received in Hindi.

"The #GovernmentofIndia despite its promises to not impose Hindi, continues to impose the language through insidious means.

Stop forcing Hindi on the non-Hindi speaking states," she said.

In a series of tweets, she tagged the Railway Ministry and urged it to take urgent steps to ensure non- Hindi speakers are also able to access the IRCTC services.

"#StopHindiImposition," she added.

Party MP Kanimozhi also criticised the alleged Hindi imposition.

"They are not respecting people's feelings and are repeatedly imposing Hindi," she said in an apparent reference to the Centre.

"People (in TN) cannot read what is mentioned in the SMS since it is in Hindi," she told reporters at the airport here and warned of "serious repercussions" due to such incidents.

PMK founder Dr S Ramadoss, whose party is an ally of the ruling BJP at the Centre, alleged that SMSes for e- tickets in Tamil Nadu are "being sent in Hindi for the last two days."

"This is a planned imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi speaking people. The Railways should stop this," he said in a tweet.

He demanded action against those behind this and urged that all Central government related announcements in Tamil Nadu must be released only in Tamil and English.

A Southern Railway official, when contacted, said that e-ticketing is handled by the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) and that the matter has been 'flagged' with it.

Allged Hindi imposition has been a sensitive issue in Tamil Nadu for long.

The DMK had successfully heralded an anti-Hindi agitation in the 1960s, before coming to power for the first time in 1967.

Even recently, both the ruling AIADMK and DMK have opposed the Centre's New Education Policy (NEP) 2020, with the former having rejected the three language formula proposed in it.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami had announced that his government will only follow the two-language system--Tamil and English.