What Is In A Language? Ask This Delhi Hospital

New Delhi: Malayalam is the most commonly used language among the nursing staff in Delhi hospitals. However, the Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (GIPMER), on Saturday asked its nurses to use only Hindi and English for communication or face “strict action.” “Maximum patients and colleagues do not know this language” and this leads to a lot of inconvenience, read a circular issued by the hospital, which was retracted after an uproar.

The circular issued by the Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (GIPMER), asked its nurses to use only Hindi and English for communication or face “strict action”, News18 reported.

G B 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 the use of Malayalam language at the hospital while adding that “the union disagrees with the wordings used in the circular”.

The circular drew sharp criticism from other nursing unions too.

Here is what others said:

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “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.”