'Banks in Karnataka should serve in Kannada. Period': Bengaluru MP Tejasvi Surya on viral SBI video

Tejasvi Surya reiterated his long-standing demand for the mandatory deployment of local staff or those fluent in Kannada in banking roles.

Bengaluru BJP MP Tejasvi Surya on Wednesday criticised the behaviour of a State Bank of India (SBI) branch manager near Bengaluru who was caught on video refusing to speak in Kannada with a customer.

Tejasvi Surya urged SBI to implement the DFS policy that mandates local language proficiency for customer-facing roles.

The video, which went viral earlier this week, has reignited the debate on the importance of using regional languages in customer service.

Read Tejasvi Surya's full post here:

“This behaviour by the SBI Branch Manager is simply not acceptable,” Surya said in a post on X. “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. Being adamant like this is simply not right” he said.

The Bengaluru South MP reiterated his long-standing demand for the mandatory deployment of local staff or those fluent in Kannada in banking roles that involve public interaction. He said he had raised the matter several times both in Parliament and in meetings with officials from the Department of Financial Services (DFS).

“Just a few weeks ago, at a Public Accounts Committee meeting, I raised this issue with the DFS Secretary, who assured me that the office notification requiring local language knowledge would be enforced. Clearly, this is not happening yet,” Surya noted.

He urged SBI to implement the DFS policy that mandates local language proficiency for customer-facing roles and confirmed that he had spoken to authorities, seeking action against the branch manager involved.

“Banks working in Karnataka should serve customers in Kannada. Period,” he added.