Chennai:
Tamil Nadu on Thursday replaced the rupee symbol (Re) in promotional material for the 2025/26 state budget – which will be presented Friday morning and has the tagline ‘everything for everyone’ – with a Tamil letter (Ru). Posters for last year’s budget included the Re symbol.
The change was highlighted after Chief Minister MK Stalin shared the new logo on X.
The decision to swap out the currency symbol comes amid the ruling DMK’s battle with the BJP-led centre over ‘Hindi imposition’ via the new National Education Policy’s three-language push.
There has been no formal notice from the Tamil Nadu government, so far, on this swap.
However, DMK leader Saravanan Annadurai told a news outlet “there is nothing illegal about it… this is not a ‘showdown’. We prioritise Tamil… that is why the government went ahead with this”.
Tamil Nadu government replaces the Rupee symbol with a Tamil language symbol representing the same on its Tamil Nadu Budget 2025-26. The previous Budget carried the Indian currency symbol ₹
(Photo source for pic 1: TN DIPR) pic.twitter.com/Mb2ruTtDFV
— ANI (@ANI) March 13, 2025
The BJP, unsurprisingly, has a sharply different perspective.
The party’s state unit spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy told NDTV the move amounted to the DMK saying it is “different from India”, and accused it of trying to divert attention from failures.
The BJP’s state unit boss, K Annamalai, who is spearheading a door-to-door campaign in the state to drum up support for the three-language formula, slammed the swap as “stupid”.
In an X post of his own Mr Annamalai pointed out the Re symbol (adopted by the country in July 2010) had been designed by the son of a former DMK MLA. “How stupid can you become?”
The DMK Government’s State Budget for 2025-26 replaces the Rupee Symbol designed by a Tamilian, which was adopted by the whole of Bharat and incorporated into our Currency.
Thiru Udhay Kumar, who designed the symbol, is the son of a former DMK MLA.
How stupid can you become,… pic.twitter.com/t3ZyaVmxmq
— K.Annamalai (@annamalai_k) March 13, 2025
Another senior Tamil BJP leader – ex-Governor Tamilisai Soundarajan – also ripped into the DMK, alleging the swap “is against the Constitution” and accusing the DMK of “working against the national interest”. “They should focus on basic issues rather than changing alphabets.”
She also challenged Mr Stalin to change his name to a Tamil alternative.
The symbol swap also comes as the state preps for an election early next year, a poll battle that will be a fierce (and certainly all-out) fight between the DMK and AIADMK, with the BJP – which has never managed a political foothold in Tamil Nadu – lurking ominously in the background.
The larger picture here, though, is the ‘language war’ between the DMK and the BJP-led central government over the National Education Policy, or NEP, which mandates students in Class VIII and above to study a third language from a list of 22 options, which includes Hindi.
The Tamil Nadu government has objected to the third language requirement, pointing to the existing two-language policy – under which students are taught Tamil and English – as having served the state – the second-largest contributor to the Indian economy – well enough.
The BJP, however, maintains its formula will benefit people travelling to other states.
It has also argued the NEP does not force a student to study Hindi.
In an interview with NDTV last month, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan accused the DMK of creating a “false narrative for political ends”, a reference to the forthcoming election.
Mr Pradhan and Chief Minister MK Stalin have exchanged sharp attacks and counterattacks on this topic, starting with the latter accusing the former of “blackmail”; this was after Mr Pradhan said Rs 2,150 crore in funds will be withheld if Tamil Nadu does not implement the NEP.
Mr Stalin – who is also fighting the BJP over delimitation, a move the southern states fear will leave them at a disadvantage in Parliament vis-a-vis those in the north, many of which are seen as BJP bastions – has also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to seek his intervention.
On Wednesday Mr Stalin called the NEP a “saffronisation policy”, and raged that it was “not created to develop India… but to develop Hindi. We are opposing this policy as it will completely destroy the Tamil Nadu education system,” the DMK boss said at an event in Tiruvallur.
Earlier Mr Stalin and Union Home Minister Amit Shah exchanged jabs.
Mr Shah claimed the centre had done more for Tamil speakers than the DMK, pointing to a decision to allow candidates for the Central Armed Police Force entrance test to write in their mother tongue. “I want to urge the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to take steps towards introducing medical and engineering curriculum in Tamil as soon as possible,” he said.
It is important, however, to note the centre approved the conduct of CAPF exams in 13 regional languages, in 2023, days after Mr Stalin protested the decision to hold it in Hindi and English.
“This (‘Hindi imposition’) is like a kindergarten student lecturing a PhD holder….” he said.
“History is clear. Those who tried to impose Hindi on Tamil Nadu have either been defeated or later changed their stance and aligned with DMK (the reference was to the Congress, in power at the centre during the anti-Hindi riots of the 1960s and now a firm ally). Tamil Nadu will not tolerate Hindi colonialism replacing British colonialism,” the Chief Minister had responded.
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