Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], March 13: BJP leader Tamilisai Soundarajan has sharply criticized the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to drop the Indian currency symbol ‘₹’ (Rupee symbol) in favor of the Tamil alphabet ‘Ru’ in the state budget logo.
Soundarajan expressed concerns about the DMK government’s choice, stating that the Indian currency symbol is part of a federal setup and should be respected. “The Indian currency is a federal setup and they have to respect the national symbols. We are not against Tamil Nadu symbols or language, we are in favor of it,” she said.
The BJP leader also questioned why the DMK had not made this change in previous years, given their long tenure in power. She further remarked, “They have ruled Tamil Nadu for so many years and presented the budget so many times; why do they want to dramatize it now? They were at the Centre for so many years, why didn’t they take this decision then?”
Soundarajan suggested that the MK Stalin-led government was trying to divert attention from its failures by making the issue more controversial than it needed to be. “Even I have a Tamil name but MK Stalin does not. Ask him if he would change his name into a Tamil name. They are doing all this to divert attention from the failures of their government,” she added.
The controversy stems from the release of the logo for the Tamil Nadu Budget 2025-26, in which the Indian currency symbol ‘₹’ was replaced with the Tamil character ‘Ru’. The state budget will be presented in the Tamil Nadu assembly on March 14, 2025.
This move comes amid ongoing tensions between the Tamil Nadu government and the Centre over various issues, including the three-language formula proposed in the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020.