The language dispute between Tamil Nadu and the Centre took a new turn on Thursday when the DMK-led government replaced the rupee symbol in the state Budget document with a Tamil letter. Ironically, the rupee symbol was created by Udaya Kumar Dharmalingam, an IIT professor and son of a former DMK MLA. This gave the BJP a reason to strongly criticize the DMK and Chief Minister MK Stalin.
WHO DESIGNED RUPEE SYMBOL?
The rupee symbol was designed by Udaya Kumar in 2010. At the time, he was a postgraduate student at IIT Mumbai and had just secured a job at IIT Guwahati when he won a national contest to create the symbol. His design was chosen from hundreds of entries and was officially introduced on July 15, 2010, by the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government.
Udaya Kumar, born in Marur near Tiruvannamalai, explained that he combined elements of the Devanagari and Roman scripts for the design. The symbol blends the Devanagari ‘Ra’ (for rupiah) and the Roman ‘R’ (for rupees), giving it both an Indian and a universal identity.
Since then, Udaya Kumar, who is now head of the design department at IIT Guwahati, has designed logos for several institutions such as IIT-Hyderabad, and the National Testing Agency (NTA).
However, what many don’t know is that Udaya Kumar comes from a political background. His father, N Dharmalingam, was a former DMK MLA from Tamil Nadu.
BJP GETS AMMO TO SLAM MK STALIN
This fact was used by the BJP to blast the Stalin-led government, with state chief K Annamalai labelling the move “stupid”.
“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. How stupid can you become, Stalin?” Annamalai tweeted.
BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya also jabbed the Chief Minister, calling the move to use the first letter of the Tamil word ‘Rubaai’ in the Budget “ridiculous”.
“Udaya Kumar Dharmalingam is an Indian academic and designer, son of a former DMK MLA, who designed the Indian rupee sign, which was accepted by Bharat. Chief Minister MK Stalin is insulting Tamilians by dropping the rupee sign from the Budget document. Just how ridiculous can one get?” he said.
The latest flashpoint will only escalate the spat between the Centre and Tamil Nadu over the ‘three-language formula’ that is a part of the New Education Policy (NEP) of 2020. The Stalin-led government has repeatedly accused the Centre of trying to “impose Hindi” on southern states through the policy.
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