Chief Minister Jayalalithaa said the move amounted to ”imposing Hindi”. The latest UGC order, she said, seems to be based on a decision taken by the national Hindi council on July 28, 2011, when Manmohan Singh headed the United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre.
On Tuesday, Anna University and Alagappa University had received a UGC circular which says Hindi be taught as a primary language along with English in undergraduate courses, and also in law and commerce streams.
The Council had then said that students in Gujarat either graduated studying English or Hindi, thus resulting in lack of translation skills in Central departments and UGC had been asked to ensure Hindi was also taught along with English, she said in a statement here.
“From this, it is clear that the effort to impose Hindi basically stemmed from the decisions taken in this July 28, 2011, meeting of the Kendriya Hindi Samiti,” she said.
Jayalalithaa also questioned why the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, then a part of the Congress-led UPA, remained silent then, though it opposed the move now. She said her party's stand was consistent and Hindi should not be imposed on non-Hindi speaking states.
The Official Languages Act, 1963, made it clear that Hindi should not be imposed on states not speaking the language, while the communication between Centre and such states, classified as 'Zone C', should only be in English, as mandates later.
”Therefore, the UGC circular will not at all apply to universities in Tamil Nadu,” she said.
At a time when she raised demands like Tamil being made official language and being accorded the same status in Madras High Court, such a directive asking universities in the state to teach Hindi along with English “is not only unacceptable, but also against the law,” she said.
She said that in various streams in the universities, Tamil or other languages would continue to remain under Part I, English Part II and other related ones Part III.
”I have asked the Chief Secretary to advice universities in the state to convey to UGC that the decisions taken in the Kendriya Hindi Samiti on July 27, 2011 will not be binding on them,” she said.
Source: The Telegraph
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