Cong-JDS to campaign jointly, vow to reduce BJP to single digit in Karnataka
Bengaluru, Mar 19: The ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka Tuesday said they would jointly campaign for the Lok Sabha polls and vowed to reduce the BJP to a "single digit" in the state.
Leaders of both parties said they would resolve all the issues and fight the polls unitedly, amid tension between them at the local level.
The alliance partners also gagged their partymen from airing any differences to the media.
The Congress and JD(S) have decided to launch their joint campaign on March 31 by organising a mammoth rally near Bengaluru, likely to be attended by Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
"Our relentless fight is for keeping our (Congress and JDS) 12 seats with ourselves, and win majority of the 16 seats that is with the BJP, as we are going together in this polls," JD(S) chief and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda said.
Addressing a joint press conference along with Congress leaders, he said, "I'm not saying this with pride, we will not allow them (BJP) to see two digits..will not allow them to reach two digits.."
"Our primary objective is to stop the communal forces," he added, as he also expressed confidence that the alliance will not only make efforts to win the seats, but will win.
In the 2014 general election, BJP had bagged 17, Congress 9 and JD(S) two seats. However in the bypolls, the BJP had yielded the Bellary seat to Congress.
Coalition leaders, including Gowda, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, coalition coordination committee chairman Siddaramaiah and Karnataka PCC chief Dinesh Gundu Rao held a long meeting Tuesday morning.
It followed a similar meeting involving AICC general secretary K C Venugopal late on Monday night to discuss poll preparations and campaigning.
Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara was conspicuous by his absence at the meeting and press conference.
Sources said he was upset with Congress leadership for ceding Tumkur seat, his home turf, to JD(S), despite the party having its sitting MP there. However, both the KPCC chief and Parameshwara himself maintained that he was out of town to attend a pre-scheduled event.
Against the backdrop of seat sharing, both parties have decided to resolve the differences at the local level immediately, without giving any opportunity for it to continue further, Gowda said.
He said "before the filing of nomination,resolving few minor differences that are there is our duty. Time is very short, we are working on it.
If there are any differences between both the parties in any of the constituency, coalition leaders, including me, Siddaramaiah, Kumaraswamy should resolve it."
Gagging party men from making statements to the media, Gowda said from now on MLAs or district leaders of both Congress And JD(S) should not be airing any differences to the media, and if there are any issues it should be addressed with coalition leaders.
"I have requested Siddaramaiah that both parties should appoint spokespersons who can speak to the media.
We should not allow anyone to speak differentiating between the Congress and JD(S). There should be one united reaction on the decisions we take," he said.
He appealed to MLAs, Ministers and leaders of both parties to abide by the decision and have a united voice.
The Congress will contest 20 Lok Sabha seats and JD(S)eight under a deal between the coalition partners finalised last week.
The Congress and JD(S) that had bitterly fought each other in the May 2018 assembly polls had sewed up a post poll alliance after a hung verdict with the BJP emerging as the single largest party but falling short of required numbers.
For the coalition to emerge as a formidable opposition to the BJP, and win more number of seats, it is crucial for the Congress to transfer its votes to JD(S), and vice-versa.
Conceding that there are some minor issues between both parties at few places, Kumaraswamy said, they can be resolved and coalition leaders were working to resolve them.
"Both parties are going ahead for the polls with an aim to win all 28 seats in the state, and I'm confident we will be successful," he said.
Karnataka will go for polls in two phases, on April 18 and 23.
Coordination committee chief and CLP leader Siddaramaiah said list of candidates will be finalised and announced in a couple of days.
"Partymen from both Congress and JD(S) have been given strict instructions that, even if there are minor differences, forgetting all of them, keeping BJP's defeat as our main aim, everyone should work with unity," he said.
One observer each from both parties will be appointed at all constituency levels for coordination.
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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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