There is nothing to mind if you call your brother: Minister of State for Public Administration
Special Correspondent / The Legal Voice 24 Media :
Social media Facebook is hot now with calling ‘Sir’. The Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Rangpur behaved angrily because of ‘sir na bala’ – this was the complaint made by Begum Rokeya University Associate Professor Omar Farooq. He also started a sit-in program in front of the District Commissioner’s office to protest this incident. Of course, DC Chitralekha Nazneen expressed regret that day and brought an end to the incident, but there is still a fierce discussion on Facebook about whether or not to call government employees ‘Sir’.
Why do people call the employees of the republic sir? Such discussions are happening more and more. According to them, government employees are servants of the people. And the people own the republic. So why should government employees be called sir? Again, for two days, an order issued by the then Establishment Ministry in 1990 is circulating on Facebook. Where it is said that ‘Sir’ for men and ‘Madam’ for women can be used in verbal address.
Government servants are servants of the people. There is no obligation to call them sir or madam. Many call Sir or Madam for the sake of politeness.
In such a context, he talked about this with Public Administration State Minister Farhad Hossain on Saturday. He told Prothom Alo on the phone that government employees are servants of the people. There is no obligation to call them sir or madam. Many call Sir or Madam for the sake of politeness. But calling it is not mandatory. There is nothing wrong if someone calls you or brother. There is nothing to mind. Government employees are servants of the people and should act from this perspective.
In this regard, the Minister of State reminded about Article 7 of the Constitution. Where it is said that ‘the people own all the powers of the Republic; and the exercise of that power on behalf of the people shall be effective only under and under the authority of this Constitution.’
State Minister for Public Administration Farhad Hossain earlier said in a dialogue program organized by Bangladesh Secretariat Reporters Forum at the Secretariat in September 2021, that there is no policy that the people coming to take government services should address the administration officials as ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’.
The review shows that unpleasant incidents are sometimes happening with this ‘sir’ call. So many say, in the current context, there needs to be a written instruction on who to address.
