J&K Bank skips ‘Kashmiri’from International Mother Language Day message 

Bilal Bashir Bhat
Srinagar, 21 Feb (Only Kashmir): The netizens of Kashmir in one voice have expressed surprise over the ‘deliberate’ attempt by Jammu and Kashmir Bank to drop “Kashmiri” language from its message poster posted on its official social media handles on the occasion of International Mother Language Day.

Pertinently, International Mother Language Day is a worldwide annual observance held on 21 February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism.

The bank which has a majority of Kashmiri-speaking consumers has sent shock waves among them by skipping the Kashmiri language in its poster. There is mention of almost 15 languages in the poster including Bengali, Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, Telugu, Gujrati, Kannada, Urdu, etc, however, the Kashmiri language, with the reasons known to them has been skipped.

Condemning Jammu and Kashmir Bank authorities for skipping Kashmiri language in its poster, President Adbee Markaz Kamraz, Amin Bhat, stated this is totally the discriminatory attitude of J&K Bank functionaries and have demonstrated their sick mentality.

“We will not take it lying down. By blacking out a language that is spoken by eight million people in J&K; is a language recognized in 8th schedule is the official language of J&K they have only reduced their own constituency and played with emotions of hundreds and thousands of their clients,” Bhat added.

The netizens expressing shock over the ‘deliberate’ attempt of Jammu and Kashmir Bank to skip the mother language of Kashmir took to the social media sites. Here are some reactions from netizens:

Jammu and Kashmir Bank whose majority of the customers and employees are Kashmiri have simply ignored Kashmiri and didn’t even pic.twitter.com/4iN8QbgfNd

— Basit (@basitwanni) February 21, 2021

Change the Name of the bank if you can’t bear to mention your own linguistic Name ‘Kashmiri’.
Such a downgraded bank …..
😡😡😡

— Sajad H. Parey (@professorento) February 21, 2021

@JandKBank celebrates #InternationalMotherLanguageDay
I wonder if Kaeshur or #Kashmiri language still has that status coz it ain’t in their poster. @JandKBank are you predicting something or informing of what’s already been resolved??? #Kashmir pic.twitter.com/lAgkiRMAez

— Touseef (@Akhmakh_kaeshur) February 21, 2021