Quite a bit of concern has been raised by the southern states, especially Tamil Nadu, over the delimitation that’s coming up.

It is a very silly concern. It either shows they are uneducated or that their understanding is so poor that, in that case, they do not deserve to be in government. We are trying to give women reservation by 2029. Clearly, the caste census will take much longer, and we will not be able to do it by 2029. What we have come up with is a very practical solution that works for everybody.

We will bring one-third reservation for women by adding seats to the current strength of the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and the legislatures. By adding seats, we do not deprive anybody of the number of seats they could contest, and yet we bring in one-third seats that will be reserved for women. That process of selecting which seats will be reserved will be randomised.

So, we will increase the seats, bring one-third reservation for women, and ensure we fulfil our commitment to our sisters that women get 33% reservation, and we are doing a proportional increase. So, all that fake narrative that Mr. Stalin and his ilk were promoting — that the southern States will be at a disadvantage and that their seats will reduce because their population has reduced — is finished. There is a proportional increase across the country. Everybody is back to where they were.

In Tamil Nadu, the DMK has successfully built a narrative that the BJP stands against what they call the ethos of Tamil Nadu; that you are against social justice and the Tamil language, and that you are trying to impose Hindi to promote only Sanskrit.

I do not know what makes you believe they have successfully done that, because on the ground I am not finding that. Maybe they have managed to get a few headlines, but the fact of life is that nobody could have given as much respect to the Tamil ethos, to Tamil culture and tradition, as Prime Minister Modi has over the last several years.

I do not think the Stalin family, given their way of life — without any further comments — can understand the rich traditions that Tamil Nadu is known for, to which you are alluding.

Of course, I do not know where Sanskrit came in from, but you are alluding to Hindi, I would think. I have challenged Mr. Stalin. I have yet to hear back from him. I have probably, umpteen times, asked him to show me one place in the National Education Policy 2020 where Hindi is even mentioned —let alone imposed. What the National Education Policy is doing is bringing in a lot of flexibility into the education system.

What it is doing is trying to promote our mother tongues. It is trying to promote our local languages. We recognise that local languages are better known to people, particularly those in villages and from humble backgrounds, and they would be able to perform better.

Otherwise, as had happened earlier under a colonial mindset, when everything was conducted in English, important positions in government and elsewhere had become the preserve of a few English-speaking sections of society. What we are trying to do is give equal opportunity to everybody.

A person in Tamil Nadu may be able to express himself better in Tamil than he could in English, but it is his choice. I personally think more emphasis is being given to Tamil by the BJP government than by the DMK government itself, which has hardly shown any respect for promoting the Tamil language.

In a recent talk, you mentioned that the DMK government had ruined the economy of Tamil Nadu, specifically mentioning healthcare infrastructure and so on. But the data that we refer to show Tamil Nadu ranks consistently among the top 10 Indian States.

So which data do you refer to, and what specifically are your measures? In the initial stage of our conversation, I had mentioned that we believe a State like Tamil Nadu — well educated, highly talented and skilled — has much more potential. It is the true potential of Tamil Nadu which needs government intervention to be harnessed in the normal course.

Tamil Nadu has historically been better off. We have the seashore, and we have historically been a more prosperous region, right from the times of the Pandyas or the Chola kingdom. So, we believe it is this potential that we are not able to reach.

So you are speaking of not achieving potential and not necessarily existing potential being ruined.

Well, existing potential is naturally getting ruined. Otherwise, we could have been much better off. And I am sure you will appreciate that, with the availability of drugs and crime against women, or with the kind of stories I hear about liquor tragedies and spurious liquor, the situation is concerning. With the state of affairs I see among teachers and our healthcare workers, and the problems they are facing; when I hear that STC [State Transport Corporation] employees’ PF is gradually not being paid — that’s a government body — all of these clearly show a loss of faith in the government. I do not see much investment happening in development activities. Most of the development activities that you see around are either Centrally driven or funded. The national highways, the airports or the ports — all of that are Centrally driven.