NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, MAR 30
In the battle of the language, Tamil Thai has won over the Hindi Rani again. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) on Thursday issued new guidelines stating that the term curd can be used along with other titles like ‘thayir’ and ‘mosaru’ among others.
Despite Tamil Nadu BJP chief Annamalai’s bid to woo Tamils with the promise of opposing imposition of Hindi in all forms, directive for labelling curd as ‘dahi’,
On behalf of @BJP4TamilNadu, we thank @fssaiindia for considering our request for a rollback of the notification released and for allowing the State-run co-operative milk societies to use their respective regional language instead of “Dhahi” on curd sachets. https://t.co/CRyxsCZNYc
— K.Annamalai (மோடியின் குடும்பம்) (@annamalai_k) March 30, 2023
The state-run Aavin in Tamil Nadu had said it will not use the Hindi term ‘dahi’ in its printed sachets, and that it would only stick to the Tamil word ‘thayir’ to denote the product.
While Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin said the move was as an attempt to “impose Hindi”, the state BJP unit also opposed the move to use the Hindi title. BJP state unit chief K Annamalai said the notification was not in tandem with Centre’s policy of promoting regional languages.
In its notification on Thursday, FSSAI stated: “As many representations were received recently on omission of the term “curd, from the Standards of Fermented Milk Products, it has been decided that FBOs may use the term Curd along with any other designation [prevalent regional common name] in brackets on the label. Accordingly, curd can also be labelled as: Curd (Dahi), Curd (Mosaru), Curd (Zaamut daud), Curd (Thayir) or Curd (Perugu).
On his Twitter handle, Stalin earlier posted a news report on FSSAI directing Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) to label curd as “dahi” prominently. Responding to the reports, he lashed out at the “unabashed insistence of Hindi imposition”. “Such brazen disregard to our mother tongues will make sure those responsible are banished from south forever,” he said.
