A State Bank of India (SBI) branch manager posted in Surya Nagara, Chandapura—an area in Bengaluru’s Anekal Taluk—was transferred on Tuesday after a video emerged on social media showing her refusing to communicate in Kannada with a customer, officials familiar with the matter said.
Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah called the manager’s refusal to speak in Kannada and English “strongly condemnable” and welcomed the bank’s decision to transfer the employee, emphasising the need for cultural and linguistic sensitivity across the banking sector.
The footage, which surfaced earlier this week, shows a customer repeatedly requesting the branch manager to speak in Kannada—the official language of Karnataka. However, the manager insisted on speaking in Hindi, saying, “I will not speak Kannada for you. I will speak Hindi.” The video was widely shared on social media, sparking condemnation from Kannada activists and political leaders across party lines.
“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…I urge the Ministry of Finance & Dept of Financial Services to mandate cultural and language sensitisation training for all bank staff across India. Respecting local language is respecting the people,” the chief minister posted on X.
BJP MP Tejasvi Surya also voiced strong criticism of the manager’s conduct. “This behaviour by the SBI Branch Manager is simply not acceptable. If you are doing customer interface work in Karnataka, especially in a sector like banking, it is important to communicate to customers in the language they know,” he said, highlighting his previous efforts to push for the appointment of staff fluent in local languages.
He further urged the bank to strictly enforce existing directives, stating, “Looks like this still isn’t being enforced properly. I urge the concerned at SBI to immediately implement the DFS policy that mandates the local language requirement. I have spoken to the concerned authorities to take action against this manager who has behaved in this manner. Banks working in Karnataka should serve customers in Kannada. Period.”
While SBI is yet to issue, the incident also sparked a parallel conversation on the practicality of such expectations in a centralised banking system. An X user, Shiva Mudgil, took to X to counter Surya’s remarks, offering a different perspective on the staffing practices in banks like SBI.
“Given the State Bank of India’s pan-India postings, where employees aren’t informed of their posting location before joining and face potential transfers every three years, expecting an employee to master multiple languages in such a short time is unrealistic,” Mudgil argued. She added, “Local clerks are typically available to bridge language gaps, so she should prioritise sharpening her banking skills over struggling with language acquisition.”
In a follow-up post, Mudgil shared a personal anecdote: “While growing up, my father had interstate transfers. From Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh. How many languages should the employee learn? Postings are not of choice.”
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) mandates all banks—both public and private—to provide services in three languages: English, Hindi, and the official language of the state in which the branch is located. This includes customer interaction, signage, and forms. Despite these clear guidelines, the viral video showed the branch manager repeatedly asserting that she would not speak in Kannada, even after the customer cited RBI norms.
