TN govt replaces Rupee symbol in budget logo with Tamil letter draws BJP's ire

    Chennai, Mar 13 (PTI) Amid the burning language row in Tamil Nadu, the state government has replaced the Indian rupee symbol with a Tamil letter in its logo for the budget 2025-26, which will be tabled in the state Assembly on Friday.

    While the move drew the ire of the opposition BJP, the ruling DMK wondered if there was any rule that barred such a depiction.

    Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu is scheduled to table the budget on Friday.

    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 logo also had the caption "everything for all," indicating what the ruling DMK claims is its inclusive model of governance.

    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 Videos.

    It was "stupidity" like Annamalai mentioned, 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 charged while slamming the DMK.

    The development comes amidst the language row between the Centre and Tamil Nadu.

    The ruling DMK and other major politics parties in the state, barring the BJP have been alleging Hindi imposition by the Union government, a charge denied by the latter.
    The DMK has argued that the Centre wants to 'impose' the north Indian language on Tamil Nadu through the implementation of the 3-language formula in the National Education Policy.

    The government has said it will not follow the 3-language formula but only stick to its decades-old 2-language policy of Tamil and English.

    According to the government portal "knowindia.gov.in," 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.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)