Stalin calls TVK a 'reels government' for North Indian influencers as Hindi signboard row deepens

M. K. Stalin sharpened the language row engulfing the TVK government on Friday, accusing Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay's administration of attempting to impose Hindi in Tamil Nadu — and of running what he called a 'reels government for North Indian influencers'.

"So far, Tamil Nadu has been facing the Union government's imposition of Hindi. Now, it seems the state government itself is taking up that role, which appears to be the change they had promised," the DMK president said on the final day of bypoll campaigning, warning the government against any alteration to the state's two-language policy of Tamil and English.

Stalin questioned the administration's method of governance itself. "Is this yet another attempt by the TVK government to first test the waters in everything and then take a 'U-turn' once opposition emerges?" he asked, urging it to 'immediately change its approach'.

The broadside landed within hours of Vijay concluding a massive roadshow in Madurantakam for the October 6 bypoll — from Mamandoor through Karunguzhi, Madurantakam, Perumbakkam and Melmaruvathur to Achirupakkam, in support of TVK candidate Maragatham Kumaravel, under heavy security. Stalin, meanwhile, opened his Dharapuram campaign with a roadshow from the Amaravathi statue, backed by senior DMK leaders including Leader of Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin and Kanimozhi Karunanidhi. Polling is on October 6; votes will be counted on October 9; campaigning ends October 4.

The immediate trigger is the Hindi signboard controversy on the Sathankulam–Nazareth state highway in Thoothukudi district, where images of newly installed Hindi signposts surfaced on social media. The government suspended an assistant executive engineer and an assistant engineer of the highways department, saying they had violated the two-language policy. The Justice reported the suspensions on Thursday.

But Stalin's charge is about more than two engineers. It folds the signboard episode into a pattern he has been building: a government that tests waters, courts outrage, then reverses — governing by trial balloon and social-media reaction. The 'reels government' line, aimed at an administration fluent in the influencer idiom, asks a harder question than who approved the boards: whose instincts put Hindi on Tamil Nadu's highways in the first place?

The language question has now been placed squarely at the centre of the bypoll battle — alongside the Left parties' charge that TVK leads in cash-for-votes, which The Justice reported as its breaking story on Friday morning.