Did Sonu Nigam Take Anti-Karnataka Stand To Slam Bengaluru South MP Over SBI Kannada Row?

Singer Sonu Nigam was in the centre of a controversy after lashing out at a fan at a concert for demanding him sing a Kannada song in Bengaluru recently.

Now, reports in the media are claiming that he has criticised Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya over his stand on the SBI employee refusing to speak in Kannada in Karnataka's capital.

The New Controversy

A Twitter account with the name Sonu Nigam wrote: Don't dub Kannada movies in Hindi! Don't release Kannada movies pan-India! Do you have the guts to say this to Kannada film stars, Mr. @Tejasvi_Surya, or you are just another language warrior?"

As the post went viral, many Kannadigas came down heavily on singer Sonu Nigam even as people are yet to come out of his recent controversy.

However, the truth is that the man who tweeted the post is not the singer rather a person whose name is Sonu Nigam Singh.

The person himself has retweeted a post about the reports of the singer criticising the Karnataka MP.

The message read: "The country's fake media does not know the difference between Sonu Singer and @SonuNigamSingh and these people are boasting of being the fourth pillar of democracy in the country, then think what their level would be. @IndiaToday @Jansatta And everyone else, please use your brain a little or have you flushed it somewhere??"

Not just the English media, several Kannada media outlets have mistaken the identity and reported that the Hindi singer has taken anti-Karnataka stand.

What Tejasvi Surya Wrote?

Responding to the video in which a Bank employee is refusing to speak in Kannada to a customer, Tejasvi Surya wrote, "Many bank customers, especially in rural Karnataka, face extreme difficulty when banking staff - those that have a public interface - don't communicate in local language. This is an issue faced by millions of customers in many states.

After we raised this issue at multiple forums, including Parliament, GOI Dept of Financial Services reviewed their transfer policy.

According to this policy, banks are directed to accommodate officers up to Scale-Ill in their respective linguistic region in order to ensure seamless customer service.

How do large public sector banks which have a duty to serve customers, especially senior citizens and rural communities, not understand that serving them in the language they understand is most essential, especially in a sector as trust inspiring as banking?

Urge @TheOfficialSBI to follow the directions of GOI in letter and spirit."