VARANASI: In a veiled dig at Chief Minister MK Stalin, Union Minister for Education Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday said “a few friends in Tamil Nadu want to create a division based on language due to their parochial political interests”.

Speaking at the Kashi Tamil Sangamam (KTS) 4.0 in Varanasi, inaugurated by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Pradhan, without naming Stalin, said, “With utmost politeness, every year I write to the honourable CM of Tamil Nadu to come here for the inauguration of the Sangamam. You can see how my young friends from TN are celebrating civilisation, which has no boundary.”

Emphasising that Kashi Tamil Sangam has become a public movement, Pradhan said the people of TN have started eagerly waiting for the new edition of KTS every year. “The spiritual and cultural aspects — the song, food, textile, agriculture, knowledge exchange are integral part of the language. Centuries ago, people from Rameswaram visited Kashi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has categorically said that like Sanskrit, Tamil, too, is a primary language of human civilisation. There was no barrier of language. Vested interests create barriers between them,” Pradhan said.