The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Sunday lashed out at the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam after photographs of Hindi-language stickers on the emergency doors of new government buses went viral on social media, Hindustan Times reported.

“Already the Union government has tried to impose Hindi here,” tweeted DMK MP Kanimozhi. “Now, the Edappadi K Palaniswami-led AIADMK government is also trying the same to prove that they are no less in imposing Hindi in Tamil Nadu. DMK strongly condemns this.”

However, Tamil Nadu state transport department officials rejected Kanimozhi’s allegations, and said the stickers were removed. “No government buses have Hindi instructions in Tamil Nadu,” the department told the media. “As the newly purchased buses were manufactured in other states, they had Hindi stickers. However, we removed that before the buses are used by the public.”

Last month, the draft of the Centre’s new education policy had proposed introducing Hindi as a compulsory subject in government schools in non-Hindi speaking states. This proposal caused a furore in Tamil Nadu, with both the ruling AIADMK, an ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the DMK opposing the proposal. The Centre finally dropped the proposal and revised the draft.