Hi aspirant

Knowledge of programming is must in IT carrer because at the end of the day you will have to code.So its better to know some basic programming language like C/C++.Most of the college have JAVA,C/C++ in their B.Tech paper and you have to pass.So anyways you will have to learn JAVA.

Its not a good idea to run away from JAVA.

Machine learning is one of the latest technology along with data science,deep learning.Though all of these doesn't need java but java has its own importance in web application,software developments,API development etc.

Nowadays seniors in IT sector are moving towards machine learning.Java is now out of phase due to Python,Perl,Ruby.

Both of them have own importance.

Java is something which can help you in placement when you are fresher.Machine learning can be helpful when you are experienced .Don't skip learning JAVA for Machine learning.

hope this was helpful.