Bengaluru: A Bengaluru-based techie has decided to shift his company's office to Maharashtra's Pune within six months because of what he calls the ongoing "language nonsense."
"Today I took a decision to wind up our Bangalore office in the next 6 months and move it to Pune. If this language nonsense is to continue, I do not want my non Kannada speaking staff to be the next victim."
The entrepreneur said, the suggestion to shift from the southern state was of his employees. "This idea was mooted by the staff themselves. I agreed to their POV," Kaushik Mukherjee said on X sharing a post shared by BJP MP Tejashvi Surya slamming the SBI branch bank manager refusing to speak in Kannada.
What Is The SBI Incident?
Recently, a video from an SBI branch in Bengaluru's Chandapura area went viral. In the video,the manager can be heard refusing to speak in Kannada with a customer.
In the video, the customer told the manager repeatedly that she was in Karnataka and should therefore speak Kannada. "This is Karnataka, madam," he said, to which the manager responded, "So? This is India."
The SBI branch manager was transferred after the video went viral and drew massive outrage.
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah reacting to the incident said,"The behaviour of the SBI Branch Manager in Surya Nagara, Anekal Taluk refusing to speak in Kannada & English and showing disregard to citizens, is strongly condemnable. 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."
He further urged Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to mandate cultural and language sensitisation training for all bank staff across the country.
