Anti Hindi Agitation

Anti Hindi Agitation - 1984

It is an irony of fate that history of 1963 was repeated in 1984. But this time the battle was more against the betrayer than against the enemy. Mr. Rajiv Gandhi introduced the New Education Policy by offering liberal funds to set up Navothaya schools where Hindi would be compulsory language. DMK saw this trap and announced direct action – burning of relevant Part 17 of Constitution of India on Nov. 17 1986 (the very day Dr. Anna died in 1963).

The AIADMK Govt. of Dr. MGR played a dubious game. It passed a resoultion in the Assembly requesting the Centre for the amendment of the relevant Part of the Contitution; but a few days later when Dr. Anbazhagan and six MLAs had burnt the copies of the Constitution, the speaker Mr. P.H. Pandian claiming "sky is the limit to my power" disqualified 10 DMK MLAs resorting to residuary power under section 312 of the Assembly rules. The assembly ratified his undemocratic and unparliamentary action. Dr. Anbazhagan and 9 DMK MLAs sacrificed their assembly seats. Undaunted by this betrayal of MGR the so called brother of Dr. Anna, Dr. Kalaignar continued the agitation. He was arrested with 20,000 volunters. The result; AIADMK's betrayal of Dr. Anna's policy and its hypocrisy to Tamil interests were exposed and DMK won the subsequent assembly election (1989).