New Delhi | Trinamool Congress's Kalyan Banerjee and DMK's Kanimozhi had a sharp exchange of words in the Lok Sabha on Monday as they were trying to raise their respective issues of alleged voter list discrepancies and the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

It started with Banerjee rising to speak on the voters list issue during the Zero Hour, and DMK members, including Kanimozhi, protesting and demanding that their party MP, Sumathy, be permitted to discuss the alleged attack on federalism through the implementation of NEP 2020 and its three-language formula.

Banerjee asked the protesting members to let him speak and proceeded with his remarks amid continued protests by the DMK.

As the protests became more vociferous after Banerjee had spoken, there was a sharp exchange of words between him and Kanimozhi, with NCP (SP)'s Supriya Sule taking Kanimozhi to her seat and saying something in her ear.

The DMK members kept on protesting even after Sumathy had spoken. The House was adjourned till 2 PM.

The three-language formula mandates that a student should learn three languages, with at least two being Indian languages and the third being English. The medium of instruction, at least until class 5, preferably until class 8 and beyond, can be in the mother tongue or regional language.

However, DMK is contending that the Centre, through this policy, is trying to impose Hindi on Tamil Nadu.