Renovation time for India’s historic mosque, with Mecca connection
A 17th-century mosque in India’s historic city of Hyderabad, which is said to have been built with granite and bricks brought from Mecca in Saudi Arabia, is undergoing restoration to restore its pristine glory.
The Makkah Masjid stands meters away from the city’s defining landmark, the Charminar. The restoration is being done to conserve the mosque’s splendid structure. Chandeliers from the high roof have been fully wrapped using pieces of cloth while the tall minarets of the mosque has been covered with scaffolding.
The mosque is said to have been built with granite and bricks brought from Mecca in Saudi Arabia. (Supplied)
A team from Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) started the restoration work more than a year ago and it is likely to take some more time to complete. The ASI had last worked on Makkah Masjid in 2007 under a special arrangement since 1956.
According to Telangana Tourism, “The construction of Makkah mosque started in the year 1614 by Sultan Muhammad Qutb Shah and it was Aurangzeb who completed it in 1693. The mosque has a length of 225 feet and is 180 feet wide with a height of 75 feet. The roof is rested on 15 arches.”
A team from Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) started the restoration work more than a year ago. (Supplied)
The mosque has two huge octagonal columns, created from a single piece of granite and topped by an arched gallery crowned by a dome. The mosque can accommodate 10,000 worshipers at any time. It is believed that bricks used for its construction where also brought from Makkah.
It is said that the fifth Sultan of Qutb Shahi dynasty, Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah, was a great patron of art and culture.
The mosque has two huge octagonal columns, created from a single piece of granite. (Supplied)
Makkah Masjid was under construction when renowned French traveler of the 17th-century, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, traveled to Hyderabad. “It is about 50 years since they began to build a splendid pagoda in the town which will be the grandest in all India when it is completed.”
Qutb Shah is known to have personally laid the foundation stone of the mosque, while 8,000 workers were part of its construction. The three arched facades were carved out of a single piece of granite, which took five years to quarry.
The mosque can accommodate 10,000 worshipers at any time. (Supplied)
Every year before the commencement of Ramadan, authorities set in process annual maintenance work to provide a facelift to the mosque. However, the ongoing work is a major exercise and is expected to beautify the mosque as well.
The people Hyderabad are hoping that the work will get completed sooner than later.
Ongoing work is a major exercise and is expected to beautify the mosque as well. (Supplied)
Courtesy: english.alarabiya.net
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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