Political Row Erupts as Delhi Hospital Bars Nurses from Talking in Malayalam at Work. Who Said What

After a furor over its ‘no speaking in Malayalam at work’ order, a Delhi government hospital on Sunday revoked its circular for its nursing staff.

On Saturday, the Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (GIPMER) issued a circular asking its nurses to use only Hindi and English for communication or face strict action.

The circular saidMala, "A complaint has been received regarding Malayalam language being used for communication in working places in GIPMER. Whereas maximum patient and colleagues do not know this language and feel helpless causing a lot of inconvenience".

Many nurses at various hospitals across India, hail from Kerala, with Malayalam being their native language and the circular drew sharp criticism from other nursing unions.

Besides, within political quarters, the circular sparked outrage.

Here are few reactions from politicians:

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted to say that it was language discrimination, Shashi Tharoor said it was “unacceptable” and “offensive”. In a tweet, Rahul Gandhi said, “Malayalam is as Indian as any other Indian language. Stop language discrimination!”

Shashi Tharoor tweeted: “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.”

CPM stalwart Sitaram Yechury called the move “Unacceptable” and tweeted saying, “No language can be banned from usage anywhere in India as long as the people conversing understand it. This must be reversed immediately.”

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh dubbed the move “absolutely, totally bizarre and unconstitutional”.

Telangana Rashtriya Samiti Working president KTR said that the 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,” he said.

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