CHENNAI:

president

on Tuesday questioned the Centre for spending 22 times more money to promote

compared to the money spend on classical language

. The move clearly showed that an anti-Tamils government is in power at the Centre, he said in a statement.

Stalin was referring to a reply in Parliament by Union minister of state for tourism and culture Prahlad Singh Patel, to questions raised by BJP members on efforts taken by the Centre to promote Sanskrit language. The minister, while listing out steps taken by the government, had said the National Sanskrit Centre was established in New Delhi. The government had allocated Rs 643.84 crore over the past three years for the Centre to promote Sanskrit, the minister said.

Stalin said for promoting classical language Tamil, the Centre had spent a mere Rs 22.94 crore over the past three years. “Whenever Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses global conferences, he recites a Thirukkural couplet and refers to the writings of Kaliyan Poongunranar, an influential Tamil philosopher. The Union finance minister draws reference to Thirukkural, while presenting the budget. BJP leaders cite these to show that they love the Tamil language. But, in reality, their love for Tamil is only on paper,” Stalin said.