The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union Monday alleged on Monday that the varsity was trying to impose Hindi by making it a compulsory subject at the undergraduate BA and BTech courses.
The students' body said one of the agenda items of the 151st meeting of the academic council on Friday pertains to "making Hindi a compulsory subject at the undergraduate level for BA and BTech courses".
According to the JNUSU, the agenda item was in response to an earlier letter received last October from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, "in which it has been requested that along with making Hindi a compulsory subject in all the schools and universities of India, appropriate and necessary action should be taken to encourage the usage of Hindi in the government offices as well".
"Many of the students come from non-Hindi speaking states with no prior experience in Hindi. Hindi, however, is an optional subject at the BA level. There is already enough opportunity for students who wish to learn Hindi," it said.
The JNUSU said the only Bachelor of Arts (BA) courses offered were in Arabic, French, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, German, Persian, Pasto and Korean.
They added that the "fallacy" of making Hindi a compulsory subject for BTech do not even demand much explanation.
"This move by the JNU administration is nothing but part and parcel of the concerted plan by the ruling Sangh Parivar to forcefully impose Hindi in educational institutions and disregard the linguistic diversity in these institutions and our country," the JNUSU said.
It claimed that making Hindi a compulsory subject would only result in dismantling the spirit of unity in diversity in universities.
Chintamani Mahapatra, rector-I of the JNU said: "No decision has been taken that may be considered the imposition of Hindi."
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