UGC circular goes against law: Jayalalithaa

The State Government directed Anna University and Alagappa University not to implement the UGC circular in this regard.

September 18, 2014 12:19 pm | Updated May 23, 2016 06:59 pm IST - Chennai

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Thursday asserted that the decision taken by the previous UPA govt on teaching Hindi in universities would not be binding on the State. File photo: J. Manoharan

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Thursday asserted that the decision taken by the previous UPA govt on teaching Hindi in universities would not be binding on the State. File photo: J. Manoharan

Asserting that the Tamil Nadu government would thwart any attempt “to impose” Hindi on the State, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said on Thursday that the University Grants Commission’s attempt to make Hindi a primary subject in undergraduate courses at State universities was “against the law”.

In a statement here, Ms. Jayalalithaa said the UGC circular was neither applicable to nor binding on the State universities. The Chief Secretary was asked to advise the universities to convey this to the UGC.

Citing an UGC circular, the DMK, the PMK and the MDMK had all charged the Centre with trying to impose Hindi. The circular was received only by Anna and Alagappa Universities on September 16, 2014, she said.

A perusal of the circular and the minutes of the Kendriya Hindi Samiti’s 30th meeting held on July 28, 2011, under the chair of the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, showed the UGC had sought an action-taken report from universities on the introduction of Hindi as a primary language, along with English, in undergraduate courses and making it mandatory for law and commerce degrees.

The decision was taken because students of Gujarat’s recognised colleges graduated either in English or Hindi and lacked translation skills required for work in Central government departments. Therefore, it was decided that the UGC should ensure the Gujarat college students studied both English and Hindi. It was also decided to make Hindi mandatory for law and commerce degrees. “It is clear from this that the attempt to impose Hindi basically stemmed from the decisions taken at the July 28, 2011 meeting of the Kendriya Hindi Samiti,” she said.

As the DMK was part of the Congress-led UPA government, Ms. Jayalalithaa questioned why the DMK was silent. The AIADMK was firm that Hindi should not be imposed on non-Hindi speaking States, she said.

The Official Languages Act, 1963, was clear that Hindi should not be imposed on non-Hindi speaking States. As per the 1976 rules based on the Act, Tamil Nadu and a few other States were classified under ‘Zone C’, in which the communication between the Centre and the State should only be in English, she said. “Therefore, the UGC circular is not applicable at all to universities in Tamil Nadu.” At the State universities, Tamil or other languages would continue to remain as Part I, English as Part II and other related subjects as Part III.

At a time when she was seeking official language status for Tamil at the Centre, Ms. Jayalalithaa said, the UGC’s directive asking the State universities to teach Hindi along with English was not only “unacceptable” but also “against the law.”

Unacceptable: DMK

Meanwhile, reminding the Centre of the assurance given by the former Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, that English would remain an official language till non-Hindi speaking people wanted it to be, DMK president M. Karunanidhi termed unacceptable the recent comments of President Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister Rajnath Singh on promoting Hindi at an event in New Delhi.

Quoting Mr. Mukherjee as saying that the websites of the Union Ministries and Departments would soon be launched in Hindi and the language had a special place among the 21 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule, Mr. Karunanidhi said that if the President of a pluralistic country like India, who was supposed to be neutral, took such a partisan stand, it meant that efforts were on to negate the assurance given by Mr. Nehru.

“Under no situation will the DMK compromise on the language issue,” he reiterated, listing the decisions of the BJP government to impose Hindi.

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