Recently, DMK MP Kanimozhi alleged that a security official at airport humiliated her for not speaking in Hindi. National Award winning filmmaker Vetrimaaran has recalled a similar incident that happened to him years ago.
In an interview, he said, “the Aadukalam team had returned to Delhi from Canada in 2011 after screening the film at a film festival. An immigration official at the Delhi airport spoke to me in Hindi.”
The ‘Vada Chennai’ and ‘Polladhavan’ maker further said: “I replied in English that ‘Sorry, I don’t know Hindi’. The official immediately asked, “How can you not know the mother tongue of this country’?”
Vetrimaaran added: “To which I said that ‘my mother speaks Tamil and hence, Tamil is my mother tongue. I can communicate with others in English. The official immediately lost his cool and said that ‘You Tamilians and Kashmiris are only breaking this country. You are all terrorists’. Despite producer Kathiresan and music director GV Prakash, who had accompanied me, intervening and trying to make the official understand that we are back from a cultural exchange programme and that I was the winner of the National Award for the year, he didn’t relent. It was only after another official took over that I was allowed to go. How can speaking in my mother tongue destroy the unity of thic country?”
***********
