The spat between Tamil Nadu and the Centre over the language row took a new turn on Thursday after the DMK-led government replaced the rupee symbol in the state Budget document with a Tamil letter.
Ironically, the rupee symbol was designed by Udaya Kumar Dharmalingam, an IIT professor and the son of a former DMK MLA. This fact gave the BJP ammo to launch a scathing attack on the DMK and Chief Minister MK Stalin.
WHO DESIGNED RUPEE SYMBOL?
The history of the rupee symbol dates back to 2010. Udaya Kumar, then an IIT Mumbai post-graduate, was a day away from starting his new job in the design department at IIT Guwahati when congratulatory calls started to pour in. He just won a national contest to design the symbol for the rupee that was selected from among hundreds of entries
The symbol was introduced in Indian currency on July 15, 2010, by the then Manmohan Singh-led UPA government.
Later in an interview, Udaya Kumar, born in Marur near Tiruvannamalai, revealed how he incorporated elements of the Devanagari and Roman scripts to design the rupee symbol. He said the Devanagari ‘Ra’ for rupiah and the Roman ‘R’ for rupees were blended for the final design, giving it an Indian as well as a universal identity at the same time.
Since then, Udaya Kumar, who is now head of the design department at IIT Guwahati, has designed logos for several institutions such as IIT-Hyderabad, and the National Testing Agency (NTA).
However, what many don’t know is that Udaya Kumar comes from a political background. His father, N Dharmalingam, was a former DMK MLA from Tamil Nadu.
BJP GETS AMMO TO SLAM MK STALIN
This fact was used by the BJP to blast the Stalin-led government, with state chief K Annamalai labelling the move “stupid”.
“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. How stupid can you become, Stalin?” Annamalai tweeted.
BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya also jabbed the Chief Minister, calling the move to use the first letter of the Tamil word ‘Rubaai’ in the Budget “ridiculous”.
Udaya Kumar Dharmalingam is an Indian academic and designer, son of a former DMK MLA, who designed the Indian rupee sign, which was accepted by Bharat. Chief Minister MK Stalin is insulting Tamilians by dropping the rupee sign from the Budget document. Just how ridiculous can one get?” he said.