PC, Kumaraswamy come to Kani’s support

Taking to social media to express solidarity with alliance party MP, senior Congress leader Chidambaram tweeted; “The unpleasant experience of DMK MP Ms Kanimozhi at Chennai airport is not unusual. I have experienced similar taunts from government officers and ordinary citizens who insisted that I speak in Hindi during telephonic conversations and sometimes face to face,” Chidambaram tweeted. “If the Central government is genuinely committed to both Hindi and English being the official languages of India, it must insist that all Central government employees are bilingual in Hindi and English. Non-Hindi speaking recruits to Central government posts quickly learn functional spoken Hindi. Why cannot Hindi speaking recruits learn functional spoken English?” the former union home minister asked.

Referring to the incident, DMK president MK Stalin tweeted, “Is Hindi the yardstick of being an Indian? Is this India or Hindia? People who attempt to bury plurality in quicksand will get buried in it.”

Speaking at length on the debate, Kumaraswamy said, “I raise my voice against the insult meted to sister Kanimozhi. Now, it is apt to debate how political leaders from the South were snatched of their opportunities by Hindi politics and discrimination. Hindi politics has prevented many South Indians from becoming PM- @H_D_Devegowda, Karunanidhi and Kamaraj are prominent.”

“Though Deve Gowda was successful.., there were several incidents of him being criticised and ridiculed for reasons of language. I have also had similar experiences. I was a Lok Sabha member twice. The ruling class ignores the South with disdain. I have seen from close quarters…most of them don’t respect non-Hindi politicians,” he tweeted.

Thanking leaders for highlighting their experiences, Kanimozhi, in a statement, said, “This kind of stealth imposition of Hindi is widespread, as seen from the comments of many people on my TL. This is not a tirade against any individual or person. The official who accosted me did so because of her lack of appropriate training.”