Hindi is not mandatory under the National Education Policy, 2020. Tamil Nadu has maintained the two-language formula since 1967. The state sees the NEP 2020 as a backdoor imposition of Hindi. With the third language compulsory, students by default would have to opt for Hindi as there are hardly any teachers for other languages. Many parents believe it would be more useful for their children to learn Hindi than any other Indian language. The ongoing war between DMK leaders led by the Chief Minister MK Stalin and two union ministers, Amit Shah and Dharmendra Pradhan, has once again drawn attention to Hindi imposition. Last week Shah challenged Stalin to offer engineering and medical courses in Tamil. Though medical education in Tamil was proposed by Karunanidhi in 2010, it did not take off as DMK went out of power in 2011. But Shah’s allegations are pegged on Stalin protesting in 2023 against conducting CRPF examinations in only Hindi and English. In 2024, following his criticism, 13 other regional languages were introduced for Central Armed Police Forces such as CRPF, BSF and CISF by the Union Home Ministry.