Tamil Nadu: DMK MP Kanimozhi Alleges CISF At Airport Asked Her If She Was Indian For Not Speaking Hindi; Probe Underway

Kanimozhi received support from many leaders including Congress MPs Manickam Tagore and Karti Chidambaram who condemned the incident saying "A linguistic test , what next?"

(Photo: Twitter/@KanimozhiDMK)

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader Kanimozhi on Sunday alleged that one of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officers at the airport in Tamil Nadu asked her if she was Indian for speaking English or Tamil and not Hindi.

The leader expressed her discontentment over the incident and narrated her ordeal in a Tweet saying "Today at the airport a CISF officer asked me if ‘I am an Indian’ when I asked her to speak to me in Tamil or English as I did not know Hindi."

The Lok Sabha MP from Thoothukudi constituency (Tamil Nadu) ended her tweet asking, "I would like to know from when being Indian is equal to knowing Hindi." She also used a hashtag of 'Hindi imposition'.

Kanimozhi received support from many leaders including Congress MPs Manickam Tagore and Karti Chidambaram who condemned the incident saying "A linguistic test , what next?"

Today at the airport a CISF officer asked me if “I am an Indian” when I asked her to speak to me in tamil or English as I did not know Hindi. I would like to know from when being indian is equal to knowing Hindi.#hindiimposition

— Kanimozhi (கனிமொழி) (@KanimozhiDMK) August 9, 2020

Upon acknowledging the complaint made by Kanimozhi, the CISF authorities later approacked the leader apologising for the incident and promising a quick action regarding the same. The authority asked the MP to share her journey details - name of airport, location, date, and time of the incident to take action against this.

"Warm greetings from CISFHQrs. We sincerely acknowledge your unpleasant experience. Kindly DM journey details; name of airport, location, date, and time of the incident for appropriate action in the matter," CISF Tweeted.

Warm greetings from @CISFHQrs. We sincerely acknowledge your unpleasant experience. Kindly DM journey details; name of airport, location, date, and time of the incident for appropriate action in the matter.

— CISF (@CISFHQrs) August 9, 2020

In the following tweet, the CISF mentioned that it has ordered an enquiry into the matter and said that it is not the policy of CISF to "insist upon any particular language".