A political firestorm has erupted in Tamil Nadu after the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) directed several cooperatives and private dairies in the state to drop the English term, 'curd,' and print the Hindi word 'dahi' on the packets. The directive was seen as an attempt to impose Hindi on the non-Hindi-speaking population in the southern states.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has criticised the food regulator over the move and termed it an effort towards “Hindi imposition.” He tweeted, “The unabashed insistences of Hindi imposition have come to the extent of directing us to label even a curd packet in Hindi, relegating Tamil & Kannada in our own states. Such brazen disregard to our mother tongues will make sure those responsible are banished from South forever.”
https://twitter.com/mkstalin/status/1641066816469626882?s=20
FSSAI’s directive, which was also issued to the Karnataka Milk Federation, applied to other dairy products such as butter and cheese as well.
The move was met with resistance from milk producers in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Reportedly, Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers Federation had informed FSSAI that it will not print the word 'dahi' on its packets. After severe backlash from milk producers, FSSAI announced that it was withdrawing its directive. The food regulator has now allowed the use of 'curd' and regional nomenclatures such as mosaru, thayir, perugu, zaamt daud and dahi in brackets.
https://twitter.com/fssaiindia/status/1641339223100866563?s=20
Opposition parties have pounced on the issue and contended that state-run cooperative milk societies must be allowed to use their regional language on their packaging. DMK leaders started tweeting with the hashtag “DahiNahipoda” (No to Dahi), making it a trending topic.
Stalin's criticism was echoed by Tamil Nadu BJP Chief K. Annamalai. “The notification released by FSSAI for the use of “Dhahi” in curd sachets produced by state-run cooperative societies is not in tandem with the policy of our Hon PM Thiru @narendramodi avl to promote regional languages. We want an immediate rollback of the notification,” he wrote on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/annamalai_k/status/1641093955042541568
Tamil Nadu has a long history of anti-Hindi agitation dating back to the 1930s. The DMK, M.K. Stalin’s party, has been at the forefront of the fight against the imposition of Hindi in the 1960s.
(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)
