NEW DELHI: A heated debate unfolded in Parliament during the second leg of the Budget session 2025 between DMK MP Kanimozhi and BJP leaders.
The New Indianโs Rohan Dua reported from the Parliament Budget session that Kanimozhi strongly criticized the Union Government for consistently targeting Tamil Nadu.
On March 11, the MP from Thoothukudi expressed her concerns over recent remarks by Union ministers referring to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
โThe Union Government has made it a habit, you know, every day to insult Tamil Nadu. Yesterday, the Education Minister insulted Tamil Nadu. Today, in an entirely different speech, the Finance Minister has taken it upon herself to insult the Tamil Nadu Government,โ Kanimozhi said.
DMK MP @KanimozhiDMK addresses media: โUnion govt. has made it a habit, every day, to insult Tamil Nadu..Union government has to take care of all the statesโฆโ
๐๏ธ @rohanduaT02 reports from the Parliament budget session.#DMK #Kanimozhi #ParliamentSession #Budget2025โฆ pic.twitter.com/BtsytlpTa0
โ The New Indian (@TheNewIndian_in) March 11, 2025
On 11 March, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman criticized the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party in the Lok Sabha, accusing them of hypocrisy regarding their stance on the Tamil language.
She highlighted that the DMK venerates an โelderly personโ who had previously referred to Tamil as a โbarbaricโ language, yet the party continues to idolize him as a Dravidian icon. While she did not explicitly name this individual, it is widely understood that she was alluding to Periyar, a prominent figure in the Dravidian movement
Sitharaman accuses the Stalin government of creating a โpolitical messโ in Tamil Nadu and denying children their โright to learn.โ
she said, โNew Education Policy actually says learn in your mother tongue till class 5th, if possible till 8th even better till intermediate thatโs what NEP says but they (DMK) want to imagine it is imposing Hindi. Wrongly they have created political mess in Tamil Nadu denying children their right to learn.โ
Addressing the media, Kanimozhi also condemned the perception that Union funds allocated to Tamil Nadu were an act of charity.
โTamil Nadu also contributes to the Union Treasury and the budget. Our contribution is there, and that is why youโre giving back. It is not something youโre giving to Tamil Nadu specially. The Union Government has to take care of all the states. And the money comes from us also as GST,โ she emphasized.
Kanimozhi also criticized the Finance Minister for referring to an ACER report, questioning its relevance in the ongoing debate.
The DMK leader accused Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of not addressing key issues during her response to the Lok Sabha debate on the Union Budget. She claimed Sitharamanโs response was politically motivated and failed to answer critical questions raised by MPs.
Earlier, Sitharaman defended the governmentโs capital budget allocations, stating that the government is using almost the entire borrowed resources for financing effective capital expenditure. She explained that effective capital expenditure is projected at โน15.48 lakh crore for 2025-26, compared to โน13.18 lakh crore in the revised estimates of 2024-25.
She further explained that effective capital expenditure includes core capital outlays and grants-in-aid to states for the creation of capital assets. โThe borrowings are not going towards revenue expenditure, committed expenditure, or any other such purposes. They are being used solely for creating capital assets. So, in effect, the government intends to use about 99 per cent of borrowed resources to finance effective capital expenditure in the upcoming 2025-26 financial year,โ Sitharaman said.
The clash began on March 10 when DMK and BJP argued over the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the PM Schools for Rising India (PM SHRI) scheme.
While Tamil Nadu has rejected the NEP citing language imposition and regional disparities, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan claimed the state had earlier agreed to establish PM SHRI schools. He accused the Tamil Nadu government of engaging in โretrograde politicsโ to score political points.
Yesterday, DMK MPs and Honโble CM Stalin accused me of misleading the Parliament regarding Tamil Naduโs consent for establishment of PM-SHRI Schools.
I stand by my statement made in the Parliament and am sharing the consent letter from Tamil Nadu School Education Departmentโฆ pic.twitter.com/vp6GtPEp1q
โ Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) March 11, 2025
Responding to Pradhanโs claims on March 12, Kanimozhi accused him of twisting facts. She clarified that Tamil Naduโs agreement to establish PM SHRI schools was conditional on a state-led committeeโs recommendations.
This letter clearly states that Tamil Nadu will accept PM SHRI schools only based on our State Government led-committeeโs recommendations and not on your Union Governmentโs recommendation. Nowhere have we mentioned accepting the three-language policy or NEP in its entirety.โฆ https://t.co/pOwQZIOpN8
โ Kanimozhi (เฎเฎฉเฎฟเฎฎเฏเฎดเฎฟ) (@KanimozhiDMK) March 12, 2025
โNowhere have we mentioned accepting the three-language policy or NEP in its entirety,โ Kanimozhi stated.
Stay tuned for more updates from Rohan Dua on The New Indian.
