Karnataka SBI incident: CM Siddaramaiah urges FM Sitharaman to sensitize bank staff to local language

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday urged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to mandate cultural and language sensitization training for all bank staff after clippings of a SBI bank manager insisting on speaking in Hindi and refusing to speak in Kannada with a customer went viral.

A customer recorded on his mobile his heated arguments with an SBI manager at the bank’s branch at Surya Nagar near electronic city. Later, Kannada groups protested the manager’s comments. The manager and the SBI later regretted the episode.

“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,” the CM said in a post on X. “Respecting local language is respecting the people.”

The SBI in a post said it was deeply concerned about the recent incident at the Surya Nagar branch in Bengaluru. “The matter is currently under thorough evaluation. SBI maintains a policy of zero tolerance towards any behavior that adversely affects the sentiments of our customers. We remain steadfast in our commitment to ensuring respectful and dignified conduct towards all citizens.”