Guwahati: Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), a rights advocacy body, on Tuesday filed a complaint with National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) against ‘Hindi-sation’ of Delhi University (DU) for alleged effective exclusion of students from the North East in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution relating to the right to equality and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Minorities.
Under the current system, students taking admission to the DU are allowed to take any other subjects instead of Modern Indian Languages (MIL) if any student has not studied MIL at the qualifying level i.e. Higher Secondary and Secondary School.
However, a Committee set up by the DU for structuring of syllabus for undergraduate courses has recently made it compulsory for all students to opt for either Hindi or 22 other MIL in the graduation course of the varsity.
‘This is nothing but a conspiracy to keep the students of the NE out of the DU. This is an act against national integration,’ Mr Suhas Chakma, Director of ACHR, said in a press statement.
Citing the problems of NE students, the ACHR stated there are several languages in NE but only three languages i.e. Bodo, Assamese and Manipuri are recognized as MIL.
The students are taught in various other languages such as Mizo and Khasi up to university level but these are not recognised as MIL.
As students are not taught MIL but their languages, they will be effectively booted out of DU. Further, not a single college under the DU has a faculty to teach Bodo, Assamese and Manipuri.
It implies that all the NE students will be affected, the statement said.
The ACHR further claimed that even those students who study MIL other than Hindi will be deprived and be denied the opportunity of admission as Hindi is the only MIL which is taught in every college and the colleges do not have the faculty to teach other MIL.
‘The DU is promoting ghetoisation based on languages in order to deny equal opportunity to non-Hindi speaking students,’ Mr Chakma added.
The NHRC has been urged to intervene against alleged discriminatory and anti-national activity of DU and direct the University to revoke its new policy to introduce Hindi or other MIL as a compulsory subject and make Hindi or other MIL optional and allow the students who have not studied MIL to take other subjects in lieu of Hindi or MILs. (UNI)