NEW DELHI: Amidst an uproar over an advisory issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to universities and educational institutions, urging them to celebrate September 29 as Surgical Strike Day, the Jawaharlal Nehru University's vice chancellor, Jagadesh Kumar, said the varsity would observe the day.
"Observation of "Surgical Strike Day" on 29th September 2018 by universities is a welcome move to pay our tributes to the armed forces. JNU is proud of our defence forces, as the officers who graduate from India's six major defence institutes are our alumni," Kumar tweeted earlier in the day. "JNU is very closely related to the defence forces. When our alumni go and fight for us at the borders, as a university we must recognise their contribution," he said.
Kumar's response over UGC's advisory came amid a criticism by the Opposition, according to whom, the BJP-led central government is "politicising" surgical strike.
"The UGC direction to universities to mark September 29 as 'Surgical Strike Day' is a part of the BJP's political agenda and educational institutes in West Bengal will not observe the day," TMC leader and West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said on Friday.