Ashish Ranjan
Thursday, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) revoked the order to rename curd packets as “dahi” after Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, two non-Hindi speaking southern states, opposed the move and labeled it “Hindi imposition.”
The FSSAI instructed the Tamil Nadu Federation of Milk Producers to alter the labels on their curd packets from “curd” in English and “thayir” in Tamil to “dahi” in Hindi. The directive also applied to butter and cheese, among other dairy products. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and milk producers who said “no” to “dahi” opposed the FSSAI directive.
The milk producers of Tamil Nadu and neighboring Karnataka also wrote to the FSSAI, requesting permission to continue using their regional dialects, as the majority of consumers prefer them.In an order issued on March 30, the food safety authority authorized the use of the term curd alongside any other designation (regional common name) in parentheses on product labels.
“Accordingly, curd may also be labeled as follows: curd (dahi), curd (mosaru), curd (zaamut daud), or curd (thayir),” the FSSAI said in a statement.Stalin condemned the “imposition of Hindi” on curd labels on Wednesday and said those culpable would be “expelled” from the southern regions of the country.
Stalin posted a news article on his Twitter account about FSSAI ordering Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) to conspicuously label curd as “dahi.” The Bengaluru-dated report stated that the FSSAI instructed the KMF to use the Kannada term “mosaru” for curd.
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Stalin, citing the report, had stated, “The unrepentant imposition of Hindi has gone so far as to require us to designate even a curd packet in Hindi, relegating Tamil and Kannada in our own states. Such blatant disregard for our native languages will result in the permanent expulsion of those culpable from the South.”
