In the latest set of controversies that have taken place at Jawarhalal Nehru University , the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union (JNUSU) has alleged that the administration has been making efforts to impose the language subject Hindi as a mandatory subject in some of the undergraduate programmes offered by the University.
The president of JNUSU, N Sai Balaji has stated that the University had specified a proposal for making Hindi as a mandatory subject for undergraduate students. Sources state that Balaji alleges that the administration had ‘systematically’ kept the student union out of the decision making bodies previously, and now have called them to be a part of the 151st Academic Council meeting which has been set to be held on 28th June 2019. He added that among the items on the agenda for the meeting, the decision to make Hindi compulsory for the students of B.Tech and BA programmes.
Balaji went on to add that the proposal was made after a response was provided by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to not only make Hindi a compulsory subject for the students to learn in Colleges and Schools but also promote the language in the Government-run offices as well.
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Sources state that the Recto-I of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Chintamani Mahapatra has denied the allegation stating that the University has not taken any step as of now. The JUNSU has claimed that the step is a move towards the imposition of the language of Hindi on the Non-Hindi speaking students. They stated that many students travel to study at JNU from states that do not speak the language of Hindi and do not have any experience in the language.
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Sources state that JNUSU claims that the students who wish to learn the language have been provided with many opportunities and options to pursue the language. They further claim that the language is available to the students in the Undergraduate programmes for Arts, however, imposing the language in B.Tech programmes is a questionable act. JNUSU stated that the imposition of the language will result in the breaking up of the "Spirit of Unity in Diversity" at Jawaharlal Nehru University.