Tamil Nadu Finance Minister says Centre's fiscal bias hurting Opposition states

Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu accused the Union government of practising fiscal discrimination against opposition-ruled states, warning that such bias was undermining the spirit of cooperative federalism.

Speaking at the India Today South Conclave 2025, he argued that partisan policies were depriving states like Tamil Nadu of their legitimate financial allocations and turning cooperative federalism into coercive federalism.

Thennarasu alleged that the ruling BJP discriminated against states governed by Opposition parties. “Just because we belong to the opposition, we are not treated on par with BJP-ruled states, again that is why when we are talking about this, when it comes to the matters of fiscal issues, there must be cooperative federalism, it must be in true spirit. When there is a partisan between the BJP-ruled states and opposition-ruled states, where those states will get more money, and the due legitimate fiscal allocations for the states ruled by the opposition is denied and that completely changes cooperative federalism to coercive federalism.”

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He cited the example of school education funds being withheld because of Tamil Nadu’s opposition to Hindi being imposed as the third language in schools under the National Education Policy (NEP).

Thennarasu alleged that the Union government was withholding funds due to Tamil Nadu’s opposition to Hindi being imposed as the third language in schools under the National Education Policy. “Only because we are not agreeing to that point in the NEP, the funds which are due for our school education department through SSA to the tune of around Rs 4,000 crore is yet to be released,” he said.

The Finance Minister pointed out that despite repeated efforts by the School Education Minister, the Chief Minister and himself, the Centre had not responded. “We have been consistently banging on the doors of the Union government, saying we need this money to pay for our students, create classrooms and pay our teachers. Till this minute I am talking to you, the money has not come,” he added.

Thennarasu questioned the Centre’s approach, saying that funds were being denied “just because we are not agreeing to a particular point” and that such partisan decisions were stripping states of their rightful allocations.

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