The meeting of chief ministers and Opposition party leaders (who are members of the INDIA Bloc) convened by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin in all probability would end as a social get together embellished with continental lunch and dinner to be served from a seven star hotel in Chennai.

Chief Ministers of Kerala, Karnataka, Telangana, Odisha have confirmed their presence for day long conclave. But the meeting lost its steam as Stalin could not make Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi (leaders of Opposition in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha) to grace the occasion.

Moreover, the main agenda of the meeting — opposition against National Education Policy (NEP) — has already been removed from the list and the subject of discussion is the unilateral parliamentary constituency delimitation by the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.

“All States barring Tamil Nadu follow the three-language policy. If Stalin has problems with Hindi, it is his personal issue. Kerala does not have any issue with regard to the languages to be taught in schools and colleges. What we oppose is the attempt to saffronise syllabus,” a source close to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told The Pioneer.

Sreemoolanagaram Mohan, well known playwright and poet said that it was time for Stalin to understand that all languages have greatness and Tamil is in no way superior to other languages.

Interestingly, Pondicherry, hardly 100 km away from Chennai, has not been invited for the meeting. People in Pondicherry have no issues in learning Hindi and the union territory has established Navodaya Vidyalayas offering heavily subsidised education with the ambience of public school.

The Dravidian major has earned the ire of educationists in the State for not allowing the opening of Navodaya Vidyalayas, a dream project of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. “Tamil Nadu is the only state in India which has not allowed the Navodaya schools. It is a crime against children because denying them the right to learn a language of their choice is enshrined in the Indian Constitution,” said Dr YR Johnson, former principal of Navodaya School and a respected educationist in Tamil Nadu.

He said that Madras High Court and Supreme Court had declared in their verdicts that denying children the right to learn a language was violation of the Constitutional provisions guaranteed under the right to education and freedom.

That has brought down the agenda to “unilateral parliamentary constituency delimitation” once the constituencies are redefined as per population. Stalin and Vijayan fear that the proposed delimitation process would bring down the number of Lok Sabha seats from Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

But in a pre-emptive “strike”, Home Minister Amit Shah declared at Coimbatore on February 27 that Southern States would not lose even a single Lok Sabha seat on account of the delimitation exercise.

“The Modi government has made it clear in Lok Sabha that after delimitation, on pro rata basis, not a single seat will be reduced in any southern States.”  Amit Shah had said while addressing BJP workers in the Textile City of Coimbatore.

That brings down the significance of Stain’s meeting to the controversy associated with the emblem ? (Rupee). “Stalin will find himself isolated in the demand for changing the emblem of Rupee which is universally identified as the currency of India. This emblem has given the Indian currency a universal appeal and Stalin meddling with it at this juncture was a bloomer,” said P Sujathan, noted author and political critic.

Dr Johnson has a small request for Stalin. “Karunanidhi’s son should have read the Indian Constitution, especially Part XVII which deals with official language. It is mentioned in unequivocal words that Hindi shall be the official language of Indian Union,” said Johnson.

Hence it is back to Square One for the DMK chief.