The Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (GIPMER) in Delhi has directed all its nursing personnel to use only Hindi and English for communication and said 'serious actions' would be taken against anyone found speaking in other languages.
A circular issued by the Nursing Superintendent of the hospital said GIPMER had received a complaint against the use of the Malayalam language.
"A complaint has been received regarding the Malayalam language is 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 inconveniences," the circular read.
"So it is directed to all Nursing Personnel to use only Hindi and English for communication otherwise serious action will be taken," it added.
Commenting on the matter, Congress MP KC Venugopal urged Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to order an immediate withdrawal of the "bizarre" and "unconstitutional" circular issued by the authorities of GIPMER.
"I urge to Hon'ble health Minister @drharshvardhan to order an immediate withdrawal of the bizarre & unconstitutional circular issued by the authorities of GIPMER," Venugopal tweeted.
Congress Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor called the circular and a violation of the basic human rights of Indian citizens.
"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," Tharoor tweeted.
This action caused a lot of uproar on the social media and attracted widespread criticism.
However, after such widespread condemnation on Twitter, the hospital took back the order an revoked the ban.
While Twitterati are appreciating the revoking of ban, they are of the opinion that this shouldn't have happened in the first place.
Here's how people are reacting. Have a look.
(To receive our E-paper on whatsapp daily, please click here. We permit sharing of the paper's PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms.)
