Jayalalithaa opposes UGC order on teaching Hindi in colleges

CHENNAI/NEW DELHI: The University Grants Commission (UGC) landed itself in yet another controversy on Thursday when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa publicly opposed its latest order that Hindi should be taught as a main subject along with English at the undergraduate level.

This is the second time that the state government has expressed its protest against the Centre’s alleged imposition of Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states. Jayalalithaa’s caustic tirade against the order, which was received by universities in Tamil Nadu on September 16, forced the higher education regulator to retract the circular on the ground that it was sent out erroneously.

Speaking to ET, UGC Chairman Ved Prakash said, “The Kendriya Hindi Samiti held a meeting in 2011 under the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. During this meeting, it was resolved that Hindi should be taught as a main subject at the undergraduate level. A circular reiterating that decision was erroneously sent out recently to all universities by a joint secretary at the UGC. We are going to correct this soon. The order will be withdrawn.”

The regulator’s clarification came after Jayalalithaa issued a statement earlier in the day lashing out at the UGC and Centre, calling the regulator’s circular illegal. Invoking the Official Languages Act of 1963, the Chief Minister said that Section 3 of the legislation clearly mentions that states that do not speak Hindi or do not recognise Hindi as their official language shall communicate in English. The Tamil Nadu government forbade all its universities from following the UGC order.