The demand of the Bharatiya public leader Sunil Sharma to create the working knowledge of Urdu non-Mandari for the Naib Tehsildar examination in Jammu and Kashmir has expressed concern in the valley, in which the ruling National Conference and Opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have accused the party.
On Thursday, J&K leader Sunil Sharma called Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and demanded his intervention, saying that one of the five official languages of Jammu and Kashmir violates the constitutional principles of “equal opportunity and administrative impartiality, and it causes an improper obstacle, especially in harmony with Jammu Divisions.
Sharma was also accompanied by Sat Sharma, president of BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir Unit
Sharma’s demand comes after notification for J&K Services Selection Board (JKSSB) for revenue posts. In its guidelines for the exam, SSB specified that the exam paper two would include the candidate’s “working knowledge of Urdu”. Urdu is used in revenue records, land settlements, court decisions as well as legal correspondence in UT, which has a functional knowledge of the language required for revenue-related positions.
However, Tanveer Sadiq, MLA of the National Conference and chief spokesperson of the party, condemned the demand of the BJP leader, insisted that Urdu’s place in the revenue of Jammu and Kashmir, the place of Urdu, is “lies in history, not in a political or communal agenda”.
Urdu, he said, during the Maharaja’s reign, became the official administrative language of J&K 130 years ago, “naturally developed as an integrated and functional language for all regions and communities”.
Pulwama MLA Wahid Para of PDP also warned against removing the language requirement, stating that the demand was “the risk of eradicating the rich collection of Jammu and Kashmir and cultural heritage”.
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“Urdu is more than a language, it is an important part of the legacy of the region. It reduces it and divides communities and rewrite memory,” he said.
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