Hindi not national language: Stalin after Tamil woman 'humiliated' at Goa airport

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) President MK Stalin condemned the "humiliation" of a Tamil woman at the Goa airport after she said she didn’t know Hindi to a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel. He said Hindi was not the national language of India and it was "concerning" that people were being forced to believe otherwise.

“The recurring incidents of passengers from non-Hindi speaking states facing harassment by CISF personnel for not knowing Hindi and being forced to accept the misguided notion that Hindi is the national language of India are deeply concerning,” Stalin wrote on X.

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister responded following an incident involving Sharmila, a Tamil woman engineer who experienced difficulties during a security check at Dabolim Airport in Goa. Sharmila claimed that a CISF officer insulted her after she expressed her lack of knowledge in Hindi when instructed to take a tray in the language.

The officer reportedly asserted that "Tamil Nadu is in India" and insisted that everyone in the country should learn Hindi. Despite Sharmila's explanation that Hindi is not the national language but only the official one, the officer suggested she Google it. Allegedly, the airport security guard further insulted her by proclaiming loudly that everyone in India should learn Hindi.

Sports Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin also criticised the central security forces and said their job was to maintain safety and "not impart Hindi lessons".

Udhayanidhi, who has been vocal about alleged "Hindi imposition" in the country, urged the Centre to take immediate against the security personnel.

Condemning the act of the security personnel even as the woman was carrying a baby, he wrote, “When a woman from Tamil Nadu said that she did not understand what the soldiers spoke in Hindi at the Goa airport, regardless of the fact that she was with a child, he said Hindi is the national language. Don't you know this?"

“I strongly condemn the incident of coercion and intimidation. It is no longer acceptable for such incidents to continue at airports. The central force is for security - not for conducting Hindi lessons,” he added.

“In the multi-lingual Indian Union, the continued imposition of Hindi on the people who speak other languages ​​is against the philosophy of federalism. The Union Government should not take such a trend and take immediate action. Fascists must understand that the right to language is also a human right,” he wrote.