Chidambaram denies humiliating bureaucrat

 Finance Minister P Chidambaram today denied that he had humiliated a top bureaucrat at a high-level meeting here last week.

Seeking to downplay the controversy, he said "...there is no question of hurting anyone's feelings".

Urban Development Secretary Sudhir Krishna has lodged a complaint with Minister Kamal Nath against Chidambaram for humiliating him at the meeting last Thursday by saying he could not understand the Secretary's English.

"I don't know what the controversy is. He (the secretary) was speaking in a mixture of English and Hindi and I did not understand. So, I requested him to speak in English so that I can understand, or if he was more comfortable speaking in Hindi, somebody will explain it to me," he said, adding that he did not want to hurt anyone's feelings.

Krishna has alleged in his complaint that Chidamabaram repeated the same remark over and over in a "tone and tenor that was expressly humiliating".

Seeking redressal, he has requested Nath to bring the matter to the notice of the Prime Minister.