By Muslim Mirror Special Correspondent,
New Delhi: CPI (M), the largest constituent of the Left Front, on Saturday announced that it would oppose with tooth and nail any move to dismantle the University Grants Commission (UGC) which is the apex body of university-level institutions. The party demanded that the proposed Bill be immediately withdrawn as has been demanded by several organisations which are stakeholders in the future of higher education in this country.
It said the government seems to be in tearing hurry to bring the legislation in the coming monsoon session of Parliament.
The Polit Bureau firmly opposes the move by the present Central Government to replace University Grants Commission through proposed Higher Education Commission of India (repeal of University Grants Commission Act 2018), it said.
It is clear that the government is in a tearing hurry to push through the proposed legislation in the monsoon session of the Parliament with only ten days earmarked for discussion and receiving feedbacks on the draft Bill.
The party said that despite using the repeated rhetoric of ‘minimum government, maximum governance’, the draft proposes a scheme of further centralization of the government’s role in vesting itself with the powers of distribution of grants..
The emphasis is on overregulation with shift towards outcomes divorced from the academic process involved. The move is also aimed at further commercialization while adopting a `one size fit all’ approach.
It pointed out that despite limitations, the UGC had some autonomy with academics being at the helm of affairs; but in the proposed legislation that fig leaf is abandoned and the entire process will be taken over by the bureaucracy and the political masters of the government itself.
While demanding the immediate withdrawal of the bill, the CPI(M) said any move which is so momentous for the nation cannot be rushed through with such unthinking speed.