Form submission begins for Naib Tehsildar exam amid Urdu row
With the submission of online application for the 75 posts of Naib Tehsildar set to begin from Monday, aspirants from the Jammu region have expressed disappointment over the government’s silence on their demand to remove Urdu as a mandatory subject in the recruitment examination.
According to the notification issued by the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board (JKSSB) on June 9, candidates shortlisted based on their written test performance will be required to appear for an additional examination to assess their “working knowledge of Urdu”, which will be of qualifying nature only.
The aspirants had earlier appealed to senior BJP leaders and even sought intervention from the Central government, calling the inclusion of Urdu a discriminatory move. They argue that Urdu should not be mandatory in a region where Hindi and Dogri are predominantly spoken.
Leader of Opposition in the J&K Assembly, Sunil Sharma, and BJP UT chief Sat Sharma had also recently met with Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to raise the issue. However, no action has been taken so far.
Many Jammu-based aspirants, particularly those with no background in Urdu, say they are now losing hope.
“The Kashmir-based parties say that Urdu has historical importance and cannot be separated from the region’s culture. We are not demanding that Urdu be removed from the system entirely. We are only asking that it not be made a compulsory subject for the Naib Tehsildar exam,” said Ankur Mahajan, an aspirant.
Several political leaders from the Kashmir Valley have come out in support of Urdu, arguing that it should not be viewed through a regional lens, as it has been the official language of Jammu and Kashmir for decades. Notably, Dogri, Kashmiri, and Hindi were added to the list of official languages after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019.
“If some leaders emphasise the historical relevance of Urdu, then Hindi should also be made compulsory in exams,” said Raghav Sharma, another aspirant.
J & K