BENGALURU: After a hotel in Koramangala displayed an abusive message against Kannadigas on an electronic board recently, another incident has sparked a language row.
An SBI bank manager in Anekal Taluk, on Bengaluru’s outskirts, refused to speak in Kannada. When a customer kept insisting and reminded her that “this is Karnataka,” it led to a heated exchange.
Following the incident, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah condemned the actions of the SBI employee. It has also been learned that the employee was transferred.
“The behaviour of the SBI Branch Manager in Surya Nagara, Anekal Taluk, refusing to speak in Kannada and English, showing disregard to citizens, is strongly condemnable,” wrote Siddaramaiah in his post on X with a hastag “Kannada First” on Tuesday. After the video of the incident went viral.
He further added, “We appreciate SBI’s swift action in transferring the official. The matter may now be treated as closed. However, such incidents must not recur. All bank employees must treat customers with dignity and make every effort to speak in the local language.”
“I urge the Finance Minister and Deptartment of Financial Services to mandate cultural and language sensitisation training for all bank staff across India, Siddaramaiah said adding Respecting local language is respecting the people,” .
Bengaluru South MP Tejaswi Surya posted that the behaviour by the SBI Branch Manager is simply not acceptable. If you are doing customer interface work in Karnataka, especially in a sector like banking , it is important to communicate to customers in the language they know. Being adamant like this is simply not right.