After Maharashtra and the Southern states, the language row has now reached Punjab. A video of a man lecturing an official working at Amritsar’s General Post Office because he was unable to read the address written in Punjabi on the letter’s envelope. The video of the verbal altercation between the local man and the official went viral on social media. In the video, the argument began between the man and the man delivering the letter when the official expressed his inability to read Punjabi language. In the viral clip, the man handed a letter to the official to get it posted, but when the official saw that the address was written in Punjabi, he asked the man to translate the text. The man then replied that the official was staying in Punjab, hence he should know the Punjabi language, as many natives visit the post office for work.
"Maine toh isse post karna hai. Main aap se Hindi mein baat kar raha hoon. Aapka banta hai mere se Punjabi mein baat karne ka (I want to get it posted. I am speaking to you in Hindi. It is you who should speak to me in Punjabi)," the local could be heard telling the official. The man slammed the post office employee for not learning Punjabi. The official then turned to his senior and asked for help. "Sir batayein main kya karoon. Mujhe Punjabi aati nahi hai, maine bola mujhe padh kar bata do. Usmein bhi takleef hai. (Sir, please tell me what to do now. I am asking him to read and tell me, but he has a problem with that as well)," the employee said.
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After this, the local man said, "Humein batane mein takleef nahi hai. Humein bada khed hai ke aap Punjab mein, Punjab ke office mein yahaan pe aake baithe ho, chahe Central government ka hai. Lekin aapko Punjabi toh aani chahiye na. Punjabi log yahaan pe saare aa rahe hain, aapko Punjabi aani chahiye. (We do not have any trouble in telling you, but we are disappointed that you are in Punjab and working here, even under the Central government. You should have learnt Punjabi. All Punjabi people are coming here, and you should know Punjabi)."
Another employee of the General Post Office intervened and tried to handle the situation and calm down the man who wanted to get his letter posted.
The employee stated that the names of counters inside the post office are written in Hindi and English for them to understand, and not in the Punjabi language. "Boards inside Amritsar's largest post office do not have Punjabi language written on them. All are written in English and Hindi," the man said. The matter did not escalate any further.
In recent months, similar incidents have been reported from several southern states as well as Maharashtra, where local groups were seen pressuring employees in Central government offices to use regional languages. In April this year, workers of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) assaulted a bank employee in Lonavala, Pune district, allegedly for not using Marathi during routine banking transactions. In another incident in May, a State Bank of India (SBI) branch manager in the Chandrapura area of Bengaluru came under fire after she declined to speak in Kannada. She was reportedly transferred following the controversy.