‘Equating Hindi with nationalism is shameful’

Chennai: More than not knowing Hindi, the issue of equating Hindi with nationalism is “shameful” and it edged out all other languages in the country in determining one’s identity, DMK MP Kanimozhi said on Wednesday.
The Thoothukudi Lok Sabha MP claimed she had never studied Hindi in school nor learnt the language even after she started going to Delhi as a Parliamentarian.
On Sunday, Kanimozhi had said she was asked whether or not she was an Indian after she told a CISF official at the airport to speak in Tamil or English as she did not understand Hindi.
The CISF had subsequently ordered a probe into the matter.
“The issue is not about knowing Hindi or not. It is shameful (to say) I can be Indian only if I know Hindi,” Kanimozhi told reporters at the airport here. (PTI)