KTR, Malayalis in Hyderabad protest against ‘No Malayalam’ circular

A circular issued by GB Pant Hospital, directing its staff nurses to speak only in Hindi or English and not use Malayalam at work, triggered protests in which Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor and KTR joined

Hyderabad: A circular issued by a hospital under the Delhi government on Sunday, directing its nursing staff to speak only in Hindi or English and not use Malayalam at work, triggered protests in Telangana too, apart from setting off quite a national debate on the issue.

The missive was issued in the Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (GIPMER), with the administration later withdrawing it. By then, a national debate touching issues including imposition of Hindi too was raging on social media, with several known personalities, right from Rahul Gandhi, Shashi Tharoor and KT Rama Rao protesting the circular.

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Malayalis in Telangana too were not happy about the missive, and agreed with Rama Rao, who said the directive reeked of language chauvinism. Several others, with different mother tongues, too joined in the Twitter conversation.

“India has 22 official languages and Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi etc., are included. Every Indian should have the right to converse in a language of their choice and no one should infringe on that basic right,” Rao tweeted.

This directive reeks of language chauvinism 👇

India has 22 official languages & Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil, Hindi etc are included

Every Indian should have the right to converse in a language of their choice & no one should infringe on that basic right pic.twitter.com/noIVoCZtBQ

— KTR (@KTRTRS) June 6, 2021

“It’s nothing but a ridiculous decision not allowing two mallus speaking in their mother tongue. As a mallu I will and must always speak in Malayalam when I meet another mallu,” (sic) replied one Mattathil Babu to Rao.

“As long as the nurses are not talking to patients in Malayalam, and only talking among themselves, it should be perfectly fine to use Malayalam. I don’t know how many decades and centuries India will take to understand the value, importance and beauty of its own Diversity,” (Sic) replied Subhash Koganti.

“I met Malayali nurses in different hospitals. They speak good English. When they work in Kolkata, they even speak Bangla with Bengali patients. In Italian hospitals, they speak Italian with Italian patients. But they speak Malayalam with Malayali patients & Malayali nurses,” (Sic), said OV Vishnu.

According to reports, the nurses were conversing among themselves in Malayalam, and not for official purposes or to patients. And that, those who replied to Rao’s tweet pointed out, could not be deemed wrong.

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