"Against federal principles of nation": Kerala Minister V. Sivankutty hits out at centre over Hindi titles to English medium textbooks

New Delhi [India], April 19 (ANI): Kerala Education Minister V. Sivankutty on Saturday criticized the BJP-led central government over its decision to give Hindi titles to English medium textbooks of NCERT, calling it against the "federal" principles of the nation.
Speaking to ANI, Sivankutty said that a letter has been sent to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan regarding the issue, and this matter will be raised in the upcoming NCERT meeting.
"We had earlier expressed strong protest against assigning Hindi titles to English medium textbooks. However, the Centre has not taken any corrective action so far. That is why a letter has been sent to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan regarding the issue. Assigning Hindi names to English-medium books goes against the federal principles of our nation. This matter will be raised in the upcoming NCERT meeting," the Kerala Education Minister said.
On the PM SHRI scheme, he said, "There is no need to reject the funds offered through the PM SHRI scheme. That money is the rightful share of Kerala. While there are points of agreement and disagreement with the National Education Policy, such differences are natural in a democracy. We will also raise this topic in the next NCERT meeting," he added.

Recently, NCERT released the new names of books for various classes. Class 1 and Class 2 books are now named as 'Mridang' and a Class 3 book is named 'Santoor'. The Class 6 English book has been renamed from 'Honeysuckle' to 'Poorvi'.
The recent name changes have reignited the language row as multiple ministers of different states, including Kerala and Tamil, accuse the central government of trying to "impose Hindi" on school students through the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP). Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin has also criticised the central government for "Hindi imposition" before, claiming that the latter has denied certain funds to state schools for refusing to implement the three-language formula in the NEP. (ANI)