New Delhi, September 21: Jawahar Lal Nehru (JNU) University will celebrate September 29 as ‘The Surgical Strike Day’. JNU Vice chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar while speaking to news agency ANI, said, “We'll be celebrating in JNU. 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.” All the cadets, who join the National Defence Academy (NDA) after 10+2, are provided with a graduation degree of JNU after the completion of the course.

Following the government's decision of celebrating September 29 as 'Surgical Strike Day', the University Grants Commission (UGC) on Friday issued circular to the vice-chancellors of all universities providing a list of activities which may be undertaken to celebrate the 'Surgical Strike Day'. The events prescribed by the UGC include talk sessions by ex-servicemen about sacrifices by the armed forces, special parades by NCC and visit exhibitions.

Meanwhile, according to HRD ministry sources, the circular issued by the UGC is only advisory in nature, not mandatory or imposed. Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said on the anniversary of the surgical strike on 29th September, colleges that are interested can arrange a lecture by ex-army officers who can tell the students how defence forces defend the country and how the surgical strike was conducted.

However, opposition parties have criticised the government’s decision to celebrate the Surgical Strike Day. Senior Congress leader, Kapil Sibal termed it as an absolutely shocking decision. He said, “In fact, I don't think since independence, we have seen UGC giving any directive of this nature to universities. For UGC, to give a directive is destroying the very independence of the university system.” (Also Read: Surgical Strikes Videos: Pakistan Rejects Footage, Calls it 'Figment of India's Imagination')

The Indian Army had carried out surgical strikes on seven terrorist launchpads across the Line of Control (LoC) on 29th September 2016 as a response to an attack on its base in Uri earlier that month. Reports quoted the Indian Army said that its special forces inflicted significant casualties on terrorists. A total of 17 army personnel were killed in the attack.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 21, 2018 05:13 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).