Dogra community demands exams for govt jobs in J&K be held in English, opposes Urdu

NEW DELHI: The Dogra Samaj Trust, an NGO working for the Dogra community, on Thursday demanded that examinations for government jobs in Jammu and Kashmir be conducted in English, one of the five official languages in the region. Speaking to reporters at the Mumbai Press Club here, the trust also accused the J&K government of trying to impose Urdu, which is more prominent in the Kashmir Valley of the Union Territory.

Gagan Mohtra, vice-president of the trust, later told PTI that they want all the examinations for government jobs to be conducted in English, which is spoken and understood in both the Jammu and Kashmir regions of the Union Territory. “Urdu and Kashmiri are spoken in the Kashmir region, while Dogri and Hindi are spoken in Jammu. If examinations are conducted in any of these languages, people from one region will be at a disadvantage.

Hence, we demand that the examinations be conducted in English,” he said. According to the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Act, 2020, Hindi, Kashmiri, English, Dogri, and Urdu are the official languages in J&K. Mohtra said that by conducting the recruitment examination for naib tehsildar posts in Urdu, the J&K government is trying to thrust the language upon them. Though the CAT (Central Administrative Tribunal) has deferred the recruitment process, the government is still adamant on Urdu, he alleged.

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Nidhi Dogra, another office-bearer of the trust, claimed that all the revenue records in the Union Territory have been digitised, and IAS officers with no knowledge of Urdu have been posted in J&K. “Why the government is insisting on the language (Urdu),” she asked. “Despite having five languages, why can’t we migrate to a single language? Only one language should be compulsory, and it should be English, as people from both regions can understand it,” said Nidhi.

The Dogra community from around the world is united and will fight for justice, she said, adding their community members are raising awareness of the issue through media interactions across the country. About ten days ago, the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board (JKSSB) had deferred the recruitment process for naib tehsildar posts in the Revenue Department, citing a CAT order.

The CAT had directed the JKSSB to accept applications for the post of naib tehsildar from candidates who possessed a graduation with knowledge of any of the five official languages in J&K. An earlier order of the JKSSB mandating Urdu as the language for the naib tehsildar recruitment examination had sparked outrage in the Jammu region, with the BJP leading the protests and rallies, seeking revocation of the "discriminatory order".