Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Thursday denied that he had humiliated a Secretary in the Urban Development Ministry at a meeting here last week.
On Wednesday, it was reported that Secretary Sudhir Krishna complained to Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath that he was “humiliated” by Mr. Chidambaram for not being able to speak in English fluently. Even as the official and the Minister maintained silence on the issue, Mr. Chidambaram sought to downplay the controversy. In a statement, he said: “I don’t know what the controversy is about. He was speaking in a mixture of Hindi and English which I could not understand. I told him that he may speak in English or, if he was more comfortable, speak in Hindi and someone could help me understand...there was no question of hurting anyone’s feelings.”
