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Guwahati, Sep 1: The influential All Assam Students’ Union today decided to hold a meeting with the Board of Secondary Education, Assam, over the latter’s decision to make Hindi a compulsory subject in the High School Leaving Certificate Examination.

Tapan Kumar Gogoi, the AASU general secretary, said it was an important decision and the students’ organisation would like to discuss its future implications.

AASU will hold the meeting with the top brass of SEBA tomorrow, he said.

“We are not speaking our mind on the issue just now without discussing the matter with SEBA. But AASU will oppose any decision which might go against the interest of students of the state and the Assamese people,” Gogoi said.

“There are several technicalities that need to be sorted out,” he said.

The SEBA move to make to Hindi compulsory is based on the premise that knowledge of the subject will stand students from the state in good stead when they travel to other parts of the country for higher education or jobs.

SEBA plans to imple- ment the decision from the 2010-11 or 2011-12 academic session.

Once introduced, students from Class V to X will have to not only study Hindi but also obtain pass marks in the subject like in English and Assamese.

Amrina R. Talukdar, a student of Class IX of Disneyland School, which is under SEBA, regretted that she would not benefit from the new rule.

“I have always liked the subject and could have learnt it better had it been made compulsory earlier,” she said.

Garima Hazarika, a noted dancer of the state, said Assamese was the mother tongue for most in the state, so the language was important anyway.

“But we are all citizens of this country and must know Hindi well,” she said, adding that countries like China and Japan have progressed even without sacrificing their language and without attaching much significance to English.

“Similarly, we must also be proud of Hindi as the national language,” she said.

A Congress leader also said SEBA was taking a step in the right direction.

“It would help increase students’ proficiency in Hindi, which, in turn, would better the prospects of students aspiring to compete at the national level in various fields,” said Abdul Khalique, a Congress MLA from Jonia.

On January 26, 1965, Hindi was to have become India’s only official language, with English losing its joint official status.

However, the DMK launched a violent agitation against the “imposition” of Hindi in Tamil Nadu and it was called off after then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru promised that English, too, would remain an official language as long as India’s non-Hindi speaking people wanted it.