Universities are autonomous bodies, no compulsion on them to teach any particular subject: UGC

Universities are autonomous bodies and there is no compulsion on them to teach any particular subject, the University Grants Commission on Wednesday said. The UGC's comments comes in the wake of a row triggered by allegations from Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union, which on Monday said the varsity was trying to impose Hindi by making it a compulsory subject at the undergraduate BA and B Tech courses. JNUSU had earlier said one of the agenda items of the the 151st meeting of the academic council held last Friday pertained to "making Hindi a compulsory subject at undergraduate level for BA and BTech courses". The CPI had on Tuesday alleged that "the efforts of the UGC to "push" Hindi as a compulsory subject in undergraduate courses will stir up a hornets' nest among other linguistic groups and affect the unity of the country".