CHENNAI: DMK MP Kanimozhi on Sunday said a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officer at the Chennai airport asked her if she was an Indian, when she asked the woman official to speak in Tamil or English.
Kanimozhi said she reached Chennai airport on Sunday to board a flight to Delhi when a CISF woman officer issued certain instructions. Since she couldn’t understand what the officer was saying, she asked her to speak in English. To this, she asked, “Don’t know Hindi. Are you an Indian?”
“ ...I would like to know from when being Indian is equal to knowing Hindi,” she tweeted. Kanimozhi’s tweet was widely shared across various social media platforms and the tweet gained more than 4,500
retweets and 12,500 likes within three hours of tweeting.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Kanimozhi said, “for her question of are you an Indian, I replied that you can’t decide who I am and left the place. Though I did not register any complaint except the tweet, The CISF official met me at the Delhi airport and expressed their apologies and they said it shouldn’t have happened and they assured me of proper action. Later, the DIG, CISF, Chennai also called me and apologised for the incident".
Meanwhile, CISF tweeted, “We sincerely acknowledge your unpleasant experience. Kindly DM journey details; the name of airport, location, date, and time of the incident for appropriate action in the matter. The CISF has ordered an Enquiry into the matter. It is not the policy of CISF to insist upon any particular language.”