India, March 24 -- BJP Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai on Sunday hit out at the ruling DMK and claimed that Hindi was a "compulsory" third language during the Congress-led UPA regime. He said that it was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who introduced the option of studying any Indian language as a third language.

His remarks come amid the ongoing language debate in Tamil Nadu and other southern states regarding the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and its three-language formula.

Referring to NEP 2020, Annamalai said that Modi has also made "Tamil the compulsory medium of instruction from classes 1-5," seemingly in the context of Tamil Nadu.

While addressing a public meeting, he further alleged that despite ruling Tamil Nadu for sever...