Amid controversy over Tamil Nadu’s omission of the official Rupee symbol on its state budget document, IIT Guwahati professor, Udaya Kumar Dharmalingam, the icon’s designer said he never expected such a controversy after so many years.
A huge row erupted on Thursday after Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin posted a video on the state budget on X.
In the state budget logo, the national currency symbol has been substituted with the Tamil Alphabet ‘Ru. ‘ State Planning Commission defended the move, saying the design was made as the official Rupee symbol represented the Devanagari script.
Dharmalingam designed the Indian rupee symbol in 2010. It was chosen from among 3,300 entries in a nationwide competition. The design, which combines the Devanagari letter “Ra” and the Roman letter “R,” has become an integral part of India’s currency and identity.
The professor said he did not have complete information about the controversy and expressed surprise over the debate surrounding the change. He also suggested that the DMK-ruled state might have had its reasons.
Dharmalingam told ANI, “Probably, the state government has their own ways, views, and reasons to make the changes. I designed this 15 years ago when the Central government floated a competition and I won it, after which they implemented it and it’s being widely used. I am really happy about being the designer of this symbol, but I never expected such a debate to ever occur.”
The professor’s father, N Dharmalingam, was a former DMK MLA, representing the Rishivandiyam constituency in Tamil Nadu.
BJP slams move
State BJP president Annamalai condemned the DMK for its decision and said the party has become a “laughing stock across India.”
Annamalai said the DMK was diverting attention from other public issues.
“Just now, ED conducted massive raids across TASMAC. They have found kickbacks of more than ₹1000 crores. These are all major issues. These need to be discussed. DMK is hell-bent on discussing nonsensical issues. DMK is against Tamil interests; that is why they want to go against the design that a Tamil person gave…How will changing a symbol benefit all sections of Tamil society?” the state BJP chief said.