Hindi imposition row: Congress, JD(S), TMC come out in support of Kanimozhi

The debate on “Hindi imposition” continued unabated on Monday with leaders from non-Hindi speaking states, including Karnataka, coming out in support of DMK MP Kanimozhi who complained that a CISF officer at the airport asked her if she was an Indian for not knowing India.

Besides support from her party president and half-brother M K Stalin who sought whether the country was “India or Hindia”, Kanimozhi received backing from former Union Minister P Chidambaram, former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, and TMC MP Mahua Moitra.

Kanimozhi, while thanking leaders who backed her, said in a statement on Monday that “this kind of stealth imposition of Hindi is widespread, as seen from the comments of many people on my (Twitter) timeline.”

Read: Kanimozhi alleges Hindi imposition at Chennai Airport

“This is not a tirade against any individual or person. The official who accosted me did so because of her lack of appropriate training. This is a larger issue and about the many official positions of authority, who do not know that both English and Hindi are official languages,” she said.

While Chidambaram said he had also experienced “such taunts” from government officers and citizens for not speaking in Hindi, Kumaraswamy narrated his experiences in Delhi as an MP and said most “Hindi politicians do not respect non-Hindi politicians.”

“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 telephone 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, he added.

“Non-Hindi speaking recruits to central government posts quickly learn functional, spoken Hindi. Why cannot Hindi speaking recruits to central government posts learn functional, spoken English?” the former Union Minister asked.

Also Read: Kanimozhi’s experience not unusual, have faced similar taunts, says P Chidambaram

Kumaraswamy said 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. Deve Gowda, Karunanidhi and Kamaraj are prominent. Though Deve Gowda was successful in breaking into this barrier, there were several incidents of him being criticised and ridiculed for reasons of language,” he wrote.

TMC MP Mahua Moitra said: “BJP treasury benches define Indianness by their own narrow parameters of homogeneity - you & I face this every day in LS. To see this @BJP myopia spread beyond Parliament & into streets only tells me how important it is for us to continue to stand straight & fight this.”

The reactions came a day after Kanimozhi complained that a CISF officer asked her if she was Indian for not knowing Hindi. The DMK Lok Sabha MP from Thoothukudi had told DH that the incident took place at the security check area of the Chennai Airport on Sunday afternoon when she told the officer to make announcements in Tamil or in English and not in Hindi.

After the incident, the CISF expressed regret and ordered an enquiry into the issue. Kanimozhi’s complaint triggered a fresh debate on “Hindi imposition” in institutions and installations managed by the Centre in non-Hindi speaking states.

Kanimozhi’s allegations of “Hindi imposition” came close on the heels of the DMK viewing the three- language policy proposed in the New Education Policy (NEP) as an attempt to bring Sanskrit via the “back door.”

DMK, which was at the forefront of the anti-Hindi agitation in the 1960s and came to power in 1967 riding high on the wave, has been consistent in its stand on “Hindi imposition” as language is a highly emotive issue in Tamil Nadu.