Assault on souls of Universities
Nurturing the false pride of ‘we had this long ago’ is India developing a mindset to destroy everything that we got today? India was on the forefront of technology in the past and had achieved great feats in the field of education through the pages of history, are the ‘neo cultural’ pundits of India turning into a roadblock for India to grow into the future? Education policy is the best example to show how India is on downhill journey with its scientific and rational approach to the future.
The believers of Hindutva are posing a massive challenge to growth of intellectualism, by tampering with the educational policy. The so called upholders of culture, often shed crocodile tears about how the invaders destroyed the Nalanda University way back in 1193. This often finds its way into public speeches that Prime Minister Modi delivers at frequent intervals. His government is working stealthily on destroying the post-independence universities of India.
On one hand this government is working on uprooting the modern universities at the cost of glorifying the historical legacy of the country. All the steps initiated to change the UGC that existed since 1956 into HECU, need to be noted. Immediately after, the yet-to-be set up Jio University sponsored by Mukesh Ambani was given Institute of Excellence, along with six other institutes. These are the biggest mistakes that can turn detrimental for India’s educational future. We need to also know HECU would operate.
The government will have all rights to withdraw the power of any university that disobeys the government diktats. The VCs and management heads of the educational institutions can be subjected to disciplinary action or three years of punishment if they fail to pay heed to the government. UGC had the powers to control the allocation of funds, but in the new body that is being constituted can only keep an eye on quality control, of course, with the prior permission of the government.
HRD ministry will have direct control over the funds that flow to institutes. As per the 1956 Act when the UGC came into existence, at least 50% of the members had to be from outside the government, from fields such as agriculture, forests, medicine or law and so on. But HECI will only have members that are nominated by the government.
It is not as though UGC was without faults, since the Commission had at times allowed practices to be taken up by the Universities that were against the interest of the students on several occasions. For instance, the ever changing syllabus and exam practices of Delhi University had subjected the students to a lot of problems. The university has switched from annual exam to semester system and then back again to annual exam pattern when students retaliated against this.
The UGC had also directed the Delhi University to engage 20 teaching hours over the existing 12 hour teaching time. Do the students have the bandwidth to listen to over 18 hour classes? Have the members or policy makers or politicians even understood how much time it takes to prepare for one hour class?
With all this, the anticipated changes that HECI would bring in, are already mired in problems. This would only help the rich universities that aspire to become top universities, one of those dreams the government is chasing right now. Even the students and teachers will choose such institutes over the others and public money will be given in large parts, including pumping of private funds only to these universities. In this ordeal, colleges and universities with lack of facilities would be sidelined.
As of now, India has 760 universities and 38,498 colleges. Among the 1.56 million students, over 80% are going to degree level classes the ones who opt for higher level of education are just about 0.67% of them. Even when the government is speaking about privatization of education, at least 78% are private institutes. What plans does the government have for these institutes and their students? By creating ‘renowned’ and ‘non-autonomous’ categories, the government is pushing most of them into second grade categories. The government assumes the students have to be controlled, and not be let off to have a liberal mindset.
This is much against the thought of ‘Where the mind is without fear and head is held high; and the knowledge is free…’ The government is trying to put a massive control mechanism over young minds, by attacking the souls of universities. This is worse than whatever was unleashed on the Nalanda university in the annals of history.
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Assam to lift all cases against Koch Rajbongshis in Foreigners' Tribunals: CM Himanta Biswa Sarma
Guwahati, Apr 4 (PTI): The Assam cabinet has decided to lift all cases pending against people from the Koch Rajbongshi community in the Foreigners' Tribunals, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday.
They will also no longer carry the tag of 'D' or doubtful voters, he said.
''There are 28,000 cases pending in different Foreigners' Tribunals in the state against people of the community. The cabinet has taken a historic decision of lifting the cases with immediate effect,'' Sarma said at a press conference here after the cabinet meeting.
The government believes that the Koch Rajbongshis are an indigenous community of the state and they are an inextricable part of ''our social and cultural fabric'', he asserted.
The people of this community are poor and have suffered a lot over the years, he said.
''They will no longer carry the tag of foreigners or ‘D’ voters,'' the CM said.
Foreigners Tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies, particularly in Assam, established to determine if a person residing in India is a "foreigner" as defined by the Foreigners Act of 1946, based on the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order of 1964.
These tribunals are designed to address matters related to citizenship and the presence of “foreigners” in India, specifically focusing on cases where someone is suspected of being an illegal immigrant.
There are 100 Foreigners’ Tribunals across Assam.
The Koch Rajbongshis have a sizeable presence in Assam, West Bengal, Meghalaya, and parts of Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan, and they demand Scheduled Tribe status.
