Chennai, Mar 13 (PTI) The ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu on Thursday stoutly defended its party-led government replacing the Indian rupee symbol with a Tamil letter in its logo for the budget 2025-26, saying there was nothing wrong in using the native language. No rule barred the dispensation from such a move, the party argued.

The opposition AIADMK and BJP flayed the MK Stalin-led government over the matter, calling it a ploy to divert public attention from other issues.

State Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu is scheduled to table the budget for 2025-26 on Friday in the TN Assembly.

The logo for the budget, released by the government on Thursday carried 'Ru', the first letter of the Tamil word 'Rubaai' which denotes the Indian currency in the vernacular language.

The move was slammed by BJP TN chief K Annamalai.

"The DMK Government's State Budget for 2025-26 replaces the Rupee Symbol designed by a Tamilian, which was adopted by the whole of Bharat and incorporated into our Currency. Thiru Udhay Kumar, who designed the symbol, is the son of a former DMK MLA. How stupid can you become, Thiru @mkstalin?," he said in a social media post.

He also shared the logo of the 2024-25 TN budget that had the Indian rupee symbol.

Responding, DMK spokesperson Saravanan Annadurai said no law "opposed or stopped using Ru in Tamil." "Then why such anger," he asked in a post on 'X.' Senior BJP leader and former state unit chief Tamilisai Soundararajan also slammed the DMK.

"We feel very sorry for the attitude of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister (Stalin) and the Tamil Nadu government," she told PTI Vidoes.

It was "stupidity" like Annamalai said, she said and asked why the change has been effected after so long and if they have "become Tamil now." "They are against national integrity, national unity," she said.

AIADMK senior and former minister D Jayakumar accused the ruling DMK dispensation of enacting a drama to divert people's attention over the issues afflicting Tamil Nadu.

"This is nothing but an opportunistic government, which wants to change the symbol. What will people expect from the budget tomorrow other than a reduction in the prices of milk and other essential commodities, a cut in property tax and power tariff, and other measures to reduce their burden," Jayakumar told reporters here.

Without fulfilling all these, the government wanted to change the rupee symbol. "Will this fill the hungry mouths of the poor? This is mere deception....what is the use in this. The government should do something useful for the people." Kovai Sathyan, AIADMK spokesperson, said Stalin has gone one step further in the language row by dropping the Rupee symbol from the state Budget logo.

"This is the culmination of all the drama and theatrics that he has shown in the last four years...my only question is will he borrow only if the symbol is incorporated in the currency? Will he release salary to the government staff only if this symbol is incorporated on the currency? Let him say it and AIADMK will be the first party to go support him," Sathyan said.

Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission Executive Vice-Chairman J Jeyaranjan asserted "we don't want to use the Devanagari. That's all." When asked why shun a symbol designed by a Tamilian, he replied, "Tamils have achieved many things. We can't accommodate everything." DMK MLA Ezhilan Naganathan justified the move and said there was nothing wrong in using the mother tongue.

"Using the mother tongue for all purposes is the theme of any Union Government principles that they have set. So, it is falling on those lines," Exhilan told reporters here.

"It is very clear we had a Tamil transcript of the Budget and for that Tamil 'Ru' for Rupee has been used. So, we are using the mother tongue for official purposes which is mandatory everywhere," he explained.

BJP state vice president Narayanan Thirupathy said Stalin has proved he would 'stoop' down to any level to hide the failures of his Government in the last four years, by replacing rupee symbol that has been accepted not only in India but throughout the world.

"It is not only laughable but also childish and immature to do this and people would laugh at this silly attitude. It's time people said Good Bye to @arivalayam. It is interesting to note that the ‘₹’ symbol was designed in 2010 by a Thamizhan and that too a son of former @arivalayam (DMK) during the UPA rule in which @arivalayam was also a part," Narayanan said in a post on X.

The issue has come in the backdrop of the language tussle between the DMK-led TN government and the BJP-led NDA dispensation at the Centre.

The DMK has argued the Centre wants to 'impose' Hindi on Tamil Nadu through the implementation of the 3-language formula in the NEP and asserted that its government in the state will not follow it but only stick to its decades-old 2-language policy of Tamil and English.

The three-language formula in NEP 2020 recommends that students learn three languages, at least two of which must be native to India. It has not specifically mentioned Hindi. This formula applies to both government and private schools, giving states the flexibility to choose languages without any imposition.

According to a government portal, the rupee symbol is an amalgam of Devanagari "Ra" and the Roman Capital "R" with two parallel horizontal stripes running at the top representing the national flag and also the "equal to" sign.

"The Indian Rupee sign was adopted by the Government of India on 15th July, 2010," it said. PTI JSP SA