Agency
new delhi, Nov 19
Condemning the public sector Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) for turning its widely used website into Hindi, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Tuesday (Nov 18) described it as linguistic tyranny and demanded its immediate rollback.
“The LIC website has been reduced to a propaganda tool for Hindi imposition. Even the option to select English is displayed in Hindi! This is nothing but cultural and language imposition by force, trampling upon India’s diversity,” he said in a post on ‘X’.
“LIC grew with the patronage of all Indians. How dare it betrays the majority of its contributors?” the Chief Minister asked and demanded an immediate rollback of this ‘linguistic tyranny’.
Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin described it as the Union Government’s persistence and infatuation in imposing the language.
“Functioning with the contribution of the people of the entire country, LIC, changing its website totally into Hindi is highly condemnable. Even the option to visit the site is in Hindi which shows the Union Government’s continuing infatuation with imposing that language,” read his post on ‘X’. “Imposing any language including Hindi will never help it grow and the Union Government has not understood this till now,” he added. Further, Udhayanidhi called for suitably changing the website so that beneficiaries could use it in all languages including Tamil. “Dictatorship cannot last long,” he quipped.
Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), a constituent of the BJP-led NDA, also criticised the LIC’s move. Only last month, the Hindi Week celebration of the public broadcaster Door Darshan invited condemnation from all parties in the state barring the BJP. Meanwhile, the LIC took to its ‘X’ handle expressing regret and clarifying that its corporate website was not shuffling language pages due to a technical glitch. The problem has been resolved and the site is available in both Hindi and English, it explained.
