India, May 21 -- As a controversy brews over a viral video showing an SBI branch manager in Bengaluru's Anekal refusing to speak Kannada, former Infosys director T V Mohandas Pai has weighed in.

Responding to an X (formerly Twitter) post that defended the manager, Pai said, "Every business must serve its local customers in a language they understand. This is not the British Raj again. This is a service business."

In his post, Pai pointed out that nobody was asking bank staff to become fluent or to read and write the local language, but merely to learn enough Kannada to communicate respectfully with customers.

"Learning, say, 200 words to converse is difficult? They are customers, not your captives or subjects. This arrogance is very, v...