Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 13: Taking the “language war” against the Centre to a new height, the Tamil Nadu government stepping up its campaign to promote Tamil, has decided to drop the “₹” symbol for the Indian currency in its budget documents and replace it with the Tamil letter ‘ரூ’ (roo) to denote ‘roobai’ (the Tamil word for the currency).
The budget is to the presented in the state Assembly in Chennai on Friday but the chief minster MK Stalin on Thursday released a promotional logo for the state budget. The logo, shared on the official X page of the Chief Minister, also carried the slogan, ‘Ellarkum Ellam’ (everything for everyone), conveying the idea of inclusiveness. According to official sources, the Tamil Nadu Government, in its Budget documents, has been using the Tamil word ‘roobai’ and the English word ‘rupees’.
Posters for last year’s budget included the Re symbol. The change was highlighted after Mr 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 alleged “Hindi imposition” through the new National Education Policy which push the three-language formula. There has been no formal notice from the Tamil Nadu government, so far, on this swap.
The decision brought instant criticism from the BJP who called the chief minister “stupid” and said the DMK was trying to prove that Tamil Nadu was different from India and accused the government of trying to divert the attention of the people from its “failures.”
The DMK leader Saravanan Annadurai, however, insisted that “there is nothing illegal about it… this is not a ‘showdown’. We prioritise Tamil… that is why the government went ahead with this.”
The symbol swap comes as the state preps for an election early next year, a poll battle that will be a fierce fight between the DMK and AIADMK, with the BJP – which has never managed a political foothold in Tamil Nadu – lurking in the background. It also comes amid allegations by the BJP that the DMK has done nothing to promote Tamil.
According to official sources, the Tamil Nadu Government in its Budget documents, has been using the Tamil word ‘roobai’ and the English word ‘rupees’ even in the past. “A few logo designs were sent for the Chief Minister’s approval. He has chosen one and shared it on his social media,” a source said. “The Chief Minister has used Tamil [alphabet], one of the 15 languages, in the Indian currency. It is not against the Constitution,” the official source added.
The BJP, however, reacted very strongly. The party’s state unit spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy said 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 Chief Minister 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?” Hitting back at the DMK for replacing the rupee symbol, Mr Annamalai said the party was so “stupid” that it did not realise that the symbol was designed by the son of its former MLA. The DMK has countered this by saying that it was not against the rupee sign but was seeking to promote and prioritise the Tamil language.
D Udaya Kumar, who has a Master’s in Visual Communication as well as a PhD from the Industrial Design Centre of IIT Bombay, won a national contest in 2009 to design the symbol for the rupee, which was adopted in 2010. Mr Kumar had said at the time that he used a mix of Devanagari ‘Ra’ for rupiah and the Roman ‘R’ and blended them to arrive at the symbol to ensure it has a universal appeal while staying true to Indian traditions and culture. The Devanagiri script is used to write Sanskrit, Hindi, Prakrit, Marathi, Konkani and Nepali.
Mr Kumar is the son of a former DMK MLA, N Dharmalingam, and Mr Annamalai has used this to attack the party, claiming that it is disrespecting Tamils through its action. In a post on X, Mr Annamalai wrote, “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, Thiru @mkstalin?”
Mr Annamalai reiterated that while the Tamil letter ‘Ru’ was used by many Tamils, including him, while writing in the language, it cannot be used as a replacement for the rupee symbol, which is nationally accepted. “I will give you the context behind this. The Tamil word (sic) ‘Ru’ is used by us to mention a value. For instance, we write Ru (Rupaai) 5,000. Only then does ‘Ru’ get significance. It is not a symbol on its own, it is a Tamil letter. What the DMK government has done is it wants to replace the rupee symbol with ‘Ru’, which I think is nonsensical and highly condemnable,” he said.
“Because the current symbol (for rupee) is accepted by all of Bharat because a lot of people participated based on a design contest. The symbol was designed by a Tamilian, Shri Udaya Kumar, whose father happens to be a DMK MLA from 1971. The DMK does not even know this, that is the funny part, it is the worst part… There is nothing wrong with writing ‘Ru’, but you can’t replace a symbol with a word,” the state BJP chief added.
In a press conference, J. Jeyaranjan, Executive Vice Chairman of the State Planning Commission, claimed the Tamil letter ‘ரூ’ (roo) was used only to “avoid using Devanagari.” Reacting to Mr Jeyaranjan’s comments, Mr Annamalai in a post on X, said: “Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has surrounded himself with such nincompoops. Mere advertisements and meaningless decisions to hide incompetence: summary of the last four years of the DMK.” He also shared a picture of Mr Udaya Kumar and his family members with former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, and said: “What the father endorsed, the son rejects.”
Another senior Tamil BJP leader – former Telangana 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 centre of the controversy, however, is the Centre’s insistence on the Stalin government implement the NEP in the state which mandates, among other contentious points, students in Class VIII and above to study a third language from a list of 22 that 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.
But the BJP maintains that the three language formula would benefit people travelling to other states. It has also argued the NEP does not force a student to study Hindi. The 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 the northern states, many of which have become 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.
