Congress red flag on govt bid to scrap UGC

The Congress on Thursday raised a red flag on the government's bid to wipe out the University Grants Commission (UGC) and instead set up a new regulator called Higher Education Commission of India (HECI).

It condemned this "systematic dilution of national institutions," first the judiciary and now the higher education system for "annihilation and recoding of government institutions – a long-standing agenda of the BJP."

With the new regulator deciding what to be taught in our education system and the government itself holding the financial lifelines of the system, educational democracy is at an end, the Congress asserted on its website.

It said: "If this systematic dilution of national institutions is allowed to continue, soon all of us, will only be taught the politics of hate and the ideology of Hindutva, leaving us busy fixing a much more atrocious problem than the current polarised divide left by the BJP."

Reacting to a draft Bill circulated for creation of the new body, which will have no powers of funds disbursement, the Congress said the Modi government wants to replace UGC with its own brand of radicalisation to have even power over the education system – "complete and total power; two hallmark characteristics that we associate with PM NModi."

It said the new regulator strips away all powers of the UGC and instead gets power to ensure quality education, though with no powers to stop funds to the erring universities and colleges as the funding prowess gets transferred to the Human Resources Development Ministry.