The Tamil Nadu government replaced the Indian Rupee symbol - ₹ (Re) - with a Tamil letter (Ru) in a promotion post of the state’s Budget for FY 2025-26. The state budget will be presented on March 14 in the morning.
Last year in the budget posters, Tamil Nadu had the Re symbol.
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This change was highlighted after CM MK Stalin posted a video promoting the state’s budget announcement on X with the new symbol. The move to change the currency symbol coincides with the DMK government's conflict with the center-led BJP over "Hindi imposition" through the three-language push of the new National Education Policy.
The Tamil Nadu government has not yet issued a formal notice regarding this transaction.
Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission Executive Vice-Chairman Dr J. Jeyaranjan said, “We don't want to use the Devnagri. That's all.”
"Using the mother tongue for all purposes is the theme of any Union Govt principles that they have set. So, it is falling in those lines. We are using whatever the Union Govt is saying...BJP is trying to find all types of issues to provoke us. It is very clear that we had a Tamil transcript of the Budget...For that 'Ru' (Tamil for Rupee) has been used...So, we are using the mother tongue for official purposes which is mandatory everywhere," said DMK MLA Ezhilan Naganathan.
The BJP's state unit boss, K Annamalai posted on X about the symbol change. He wrote, “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. Thiru Udhay Kumar, who designed the symbol, is the son of a former DMK MLA. How stupid can you become, Thiru @mkstalin?”