Citizenship query: It's not unusual, Chidambaram comes out in Kanimozhi's support

Former Union Minister P Chidambaram, a native of Tamil Nadu, has come out in support of DMK MP Kanimozhi, who had tweeted about an incident at an airport wherein she was asked about her citizenship and pointed to his own experiences.

"The unpleasant experience of DMK MP Kanimozhi at the Chennai airport is not unusual. I (too) have experienced similar taunts from government officers and ordinary citizens, who insisted that I speak in Hindi during telephone conversations, and sometimes even face to face," Chidambaram said.

The former Union Minister said: "If the Centre 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."

While non-Hindi speaking recruits to central government posts quickly learn functional spoken Hindi, why cannot Hindi-speaking recruits to these posts learn functional spoken English?" the senior Congress leader asked.

Meanwhile, the BJP has dismissed her allegation as 'electoral stunt'. BJP General Secretary (Organisation) BL Santhosh tweeted to counter Kanimozhi's charge, saying that "assembly elections are 8 months away ... the campaign starts".