Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Monday backed DMK MP Kanimozhi over an incident at Chennai airport during which she was reportedly asked by a CISF officer whether ‘she was an Indian’ for failing to interact in Hindi. Chidambaram said he had received similar taunts from government officers.

“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.

The former Union minister, in a series of tweets, said that 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”.

Kanimozhi, daughter for former Tamil Nadu CM Karunanidhi, had on Sunday said said that she was asked by a Central Industrial Security Force officer “if I am an Indian’ when I asked her to speak to me in Tamil or English as I did not know Hindi.” The incident reportedly took place at the Chennai airport when the DMK leader was about to board a flight to Delhi.

“I would like to know from when being Indian is equal to knowing Hindi,” she tweeted with the hashtag “hindiimposition,” she tweeted.

Soon, the CISF responded to the leader’s tweet and said that an enquiry has been ordered into the incident. “It is not the policy of CISF to insist upon any particular language,” the force said in its response on Twitter.