he authorities at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have decided that administrative forms that need to be filled up by students will be available in both Hindi and English. The university took this decision after coming under pressure from students when it started issuing forms in Hindi, thus triggering much resentment.

The university rector, Sudha Pai, assured angry students on Friday that forms in English would be shortly available for candidates seeking admission to the hostel, among others.

JNU is a Central university, which offers mostly postgraduate courses and attracts students from all across the country, including the southern states, where any attempt to impose Hindi can lead to a political uproar.

Some Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists, the student's wing of the RSS, seeking to consolidate their position on campus which has largely been a Left stronghold, had been putting pressure on the administration to give primacy to Hindi. But seeing the mood of fellow students, ABVP student leaders too have softened their stand.

"This is a non-issue. JNU is an autonomous university and it does not need to bow down to a so called 'parliamentary directive'. The university has taken a mysterious stance on the issue. First they implemented it and later assured students that it would withdraw it. Why did they agree to comply with such a directive in the first place? This is nothing but a tactic to malign the right-wing ideology on unnecessary issues," said, Sandeep Kumar Singh of JNU-ABVP unit.

On 25 June, a couple of students from Kaveri Hostel had informed the JNU Students Union (JNUSU) that hostel mess rebate forms were available only in Hindi. Reportedly, the JNU administration had put in the norm on the orders of a "Parliamentary Committee". It was said that a "delegation of Members of Parliament" had visited the campus a few days ago, which suggested the move.

"Some of us of southern origin were about to fill up the mess forms but could not do so since it was in Hindi. Initially, we thought that mistakenly all forms were printed in Hindi. But when we enquired about it, the Rector told us that from now on all university communication and other forms will be available only in Hindi. After this we went to the students' union, which later took up the issue with the administration," said Ravi S. Krishnan, an MPhil student.

However, dismissing the issue as a "total misinterpretation", JNU vice-chancellor S.K. Sopory said that there was no such directive in place. "No parliamentary committee has visited the campus in a year. Even the parliamentary committee on Hindi appointed by the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD), which is supposed to visit all Central universities, has not been here in six-seven months. The committee is to ensure that in all government institutions some administrative work is done in Hindi. I spoke to those students and told them that there is no such directive from the government and that bilingual forms will be available as always," he said. The rector was not available for comments.