Team News Riveting
New Delhi, June 6
A Delhi government hospital on Saturday stirred controversy by issuing a circular asking its nursing staff not to communicate in Malayalam while on duty.
The circular, issued by the Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (GIPMER), one of the leading facilities in New Delhi, had asked its nurses to use only Hindi and English for communication or face “strict action”. The authorities cited a complaint by a patient for taking such a drastic step.
GB Pant nurses’ association president Liladhar Ramchandani claimed it was issued in pursuance of a complaint sent by a patient to a senior officer in the health department, regarding use of Malayalam language at the hospital, while adding that “the union disagrees with the wordings used in the circular.”
Following uproar and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi and others, coming out to condemn the act, the hospital administration withdrew the order. “Malayalam is as Indian as any other Indian language. Stop language discrimination!” Rahul, who is also MP from Kerala’s Wayanad, said in a tweet.
Kerala MP Shashi Tharoor called the move a violation of human rights. “It boggles the mind that in democratic India a government institution can tell its nurses not to speak in their mother tongue to others who understand them. This is unacceptable, crude, offensive and a violation of the basic human rights of Indian citizens. A reprimand is overdue!” he tweeted.
Malayalee nurses are the backbone of the Healthcare system in many States. Asking them not to speak to each other in Malayalam is ridiculous. Can other States issue similar instructions to native Hindi speakers? said the analyst.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinayari Vijayan had welcomed the move of hospital administration to withdraw the order and said Malayalee nurses had been doing exemplary service to the human kind.
