Tamil Nadu: Videos have emerged showing workers from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party defacing Hindi signs on national highways at different locations, thus, reigniting the debate between 

A video shared by a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) functionary showed a group of DMK workers defacing highway milestones at Trichy, Dindigul, Chennai and Vadamadurai. The workers selectively painted the Hindi signs on the milestones. 

BJP’s Amar Prasad Reddy questioned the need to deface Hindi signs on milestones when the sign in local language that is Tamil has been placed on the top of the milestone. 

Stalin’s warning to Centre regarding Hindi on milestones 

Hindi names on the milestones of national highways have been a topic of debate for a long time with the southern leaders including Tamil Nadu CM and DMK supremo MK Stalin citing it as a symbol of Hindu imposition. 

Warning to remove Hindi signs from highway milestones from Tamil Nadu, MK Stalin in 2017 had asked the BJP-led central government to treat all languages equally. He alleged that this showed the BJP-led Central govt did not respect the sentiments of Tamils. He also accused the BJP of devoting "great attention," in "thrusting" Sanskrit and Hindi ever since it came to power. 

What rules suggest? 

As per the language policy of Indian Road Congress, rules have been laid out regarding the milestones of national highways. As per rules, English and local language are used for stones showing 5-km distance, while local language and Hindi should be used in 1 km and 3 km stones.