Cyclone Nivar: Tamil Nadu people slam IMD for Hindi tweets as 'Stop Hindi Imposition' trends on Twitter

Controversy erupted after India Meteorological Department started tweeted updates on Cyclone Nivar in Hindi earlier today.
When people were expecting the updates to be in either Tamil or English, IMD's tweets in Hindi did not go down well with the people in Tamil Nadu.
When people were expecting the updates to be in either Tamil or English, IMD's tweets in Hindi did not go down well with the people in Tamil Nadu.

Ahead of Cyclone Nivar's landfall between Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, another storm erupted on Twitter over the Hindi updates from the official handle of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).

The IMD's consecutive cyclone warnings and weather updates in Hindi irked many users in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, who expressed their displeasure by trending the hashtag #StopHindiImposition.

The cyclone affected the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh along with Puducherry Union Territory. While Tamil is the official language of TN and Puducherry (along with Malayalam and Telugu), people of Andhra speak Telugu. 

IMD's tweets in Hindi did not go down well with many people in Tamil Nadu when they were expecting the updates to be in either Tamil or English.

The translation of the Hindi tweets read, "In the last six hours, the severe cyclonic storm "Nivar" moved towards west-northwest direction with a speed of 11 kmph and latitude 10.7 ° in southwest Bay of Bengal in the morning of Indian time today, November 25, 2020, 0830 hrs. N and Longitude is centered at 81.7 ° E. Its (the cyclonic storm’s) distance is about 240 km east-southeast of Cuddalore, about 250 km east-southeast from Puducherry and 300 km south-southeast from Chennai. It is likely to intensify during the next 06 hours into an extremely severe cyclonic storm."

Another tweet stated that Nivar would cross the coasts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (between Karaikal and Mamallapuram) as a "very severe cyclonic storm in the midnight of November 25 and 26, and then move towards the west-northwest.”

“While crossing the coast, the average wind speed associated with this extremely severe cyclonic storm is estimated to be 120-130 kmph and maximum wind speed of 145 kmph,” read the last tweet in Hindi.

Here are some of the tweets criticising IMD for its tweets in Hindi.

There are many instances over the past few years where  #StopHindiImposition became a nationwide trend on Twitter.

The majority of people in Tamil Nadu have always been against "Hindi Imposition", which dates way back to 1937, when the first anti-Hindi imposition agitation was launched.

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