AIIMS Bhubaneswar's order to impose Hindi on staff, faculty evokes sharp reactions

BHUBANESWAR: On the day of International Mother Language Day, leaders of different parties and social activists criticized the AIIMS Bhubaneswar for issuing order to the faculty members and staff for using Hindi as official communication.
The order issued on Thursday by the institute said that all employees should sign in Hindi, replies to all the letters received in Hindi and conduct discussions in this language in all administrative meetings.The institute asked its employees to write at least 30 per cent noting and drafting in Hindi and at least 55 per cent correspondence in Hindi.
"All the officers in administration, academic section, hospital administration, finance and accounts and heads of the departments are hereby informed to do their work in Hindi and it should be ensured that the staff members working with them are doing their work in Hindi as applicable under the Official Language Rules, 1976," said the order issued by PK Ray, deputy director (administration) AIIMS Bhubaneswar.
The leaders and activists said that it is Hindi imposition in a non-Hindi speaking state.
"The circular issued by AIIMS, Bhubaneswar imposing Hindi, is an insult to the Odia language and the rich and vibrant culture of Odisha. There is no place for Hindi imposition in our state. Odisha congress will not allow this to happen," said state congress president Niranjan Patnaik.
He also said the Modi government must brush off its Hindi-chauvinist mindset and should promote Odia language, which has been deliberately neglected at the national level despite being a classical language.
Koraput congress MP Saptagiri Ulaka said, "So AIIMS Bhubaneswar has sent directives to speak and write in Hindi. This is another attempt by the Centre to impose Hindi at the cost of Odia in Odisha. Is the state government aware of this and taking necessary steps to stop this?"
Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor while quoting Ulaka's tweet said, "This government is squandering the hard-won unity of the country built up over seven decades, based on mutual respect and acceptance of diversity. Their narrow-minded insistence on monolithic uniformity ("Hindi, Hindutva, Hindustan") will destroy our unity."
Manickam Tagore B, All India Congress Committee (AICC) secretary and Virudhunagar MP (Tamil Nadu), Sharmistha Mukherjee, national spokesperson, AICC, and DMK party's Dharmapuri (Tamil Nadu) MP S Senthilkumar also criticized this office order.
Pinaki Mishra, BJD's Puri MP and Parliament party leader in Lok Sabha, said, "We are the first state to be formed on linguistic basis and we would not like to allow anybody sidelining our mother tongue, particularly by any institution that is working for the people of our state. We will insist on Odia being used since our people are familiar with it and that will make their task of availing service at AIIMS easier. We will formally lodge our protest with the Health Ministry and ask for a change in this directive."
BJP state president Sameer Mohanty said the institute has issued the office order according to the guidelines of Official Language Rules, 1976. "It is an official procedure. They have not written anywhere that they will issue prescription in Hindi or speak to patients in this language only. We should not politicize it," he added.
"When the whole world is celebrating the mother language day, the AIIMS Bhubaneswar is imposing Hindi on its employees. Most of these employees are from Odisha. Besides some Bengali people, most of the patients are Odia people. This cannot be tolerated," said Dillip Dassharma, a member of Utkal Sammilani.