Togadia hits out at Modi, Bhagwat on Ram Temple issue
Nagpur, Oct 7: Former Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Pravin Togadia Sunday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat accusing them of not fulfilling the promise of building Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Togadia also slammed Bhagwat for stating that "Hindu Rashtra does not mean there is no place for Muslims". Bhagwat had made the statement at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's three-day lecture series in September this year.
"Hindu Rashtra doesn't mean there's no place for Muslims. The day it is said so, it won't be Hindutva any more. Hindutva talks about Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam," Bhagwat had said.
Addressing a press conference here Sunday, Togadia said, "I want to ask if there is no Hindutva without gau hatyaare (cow killers), love jihadis, stone pelters and Pakistani flag wavers in Kashmir."
"We had joined the RSS 52 years ago considering it to be a Hindu organisation. But now we feel it is only concerned with the interests of Muslim community," Togadia added.
The former VHP leader alleged that the RSS was not interested in pursuing the cause of building a Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
He said that instead of demanding a temple be constructed, the RSS chief should "order" Prime Minister Narendra Modi to get the government to enact a law in Parliament to pave the way for a Ram Temple.
He also accused PM Modi of "appeasing" Muslim community and going back on the promise to build a Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
"When it comes to the SC/ST Act, Modi says Parliament will decide on the matter and not the courts. But when it comes to building the Ram Temple, Modi backtracks and says the courts will decide on the issue and not Parliament," Togadia said.
He charged Modi with forsaking the ideology of the BJP as well as that of Hindutva.
Speaking about the Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad (AHP), an outfit he formed after quitting the VHP, Togadia said the organisation would pursue "Hindu politics".
When asked whether AHP will support the Shiv Sena in the elections, Togadia said, "If (Sena chief) Uddhav Thackeray pursues the saffron flag (Hindutva politics), we will support him."
Togadia had quit the VHP on April 14 this year after former Himachal Pradesh governor V S Kokje defeated his nominee Raghav Reddy in an election for the post of VHP International president.
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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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