The Hindi imposition isn’t something new. We have seen many celebrities opening up about their poor experiences for not knowing the language. The latest celebrity to talk about the same is Vetrimaaran.
During an interview with a magazine, the filmmaker said, “We were returning to India after the screening of Aadukalam in August 2011 at the Montreal Film Festival in Canada. An immigration official at Delhi airport spoke to me in Hindi and when I said that I didn’t know Hindi, the officer questioned how come I don’t know the ‘mother language of the country’.
I told him that Tamil is my mother tongue and when I want to communicate with others I use English.”
After hearing Vetrimaaran’s explanation, the official angrily said, “You people are like this…You Tamils, Kashmiris are only breaking this country.”
Aadukalam producer Kathiresan and music composer GV Prakash intervened and explained who Vetrimaaran was to the official. Still, the official made him stand for more than 45 minutes for not knowing the language.
“How can speaking my mother tongue disrupt the unity of the nation? How will my mother tongue hinder the development of the country?” questioned Vetrimaaran.
Recently, Lok Sabha MP Kanimozhi had also tweeted about an unpleasant experience she had at the Chennai airport where a CISF personnel had asked her if she was Indian after she said she did not know Hindi.
