Gadkari claims Congress workers in Nagpur support him
Nagpur: Union minister and BJP candidate from the Nagpur Lok Sabha seat Nitin Gadkari Wednesday claimed that he is getting phone calls from Congress workers pledging support to him.
The BJP stalwart kick-started his campaigning and said he will seek votes on the basis of development work done by him in the constituency, which will vote on April 11.
Gadkari said he is getting best wishes from non-BJP parties, including the opposition Congress.
"I have worked for all irrespective of their caste, religion, language and party affiliation. A huge number of Congress workers and office-bearers phone me and tell me not to worry," claimed Gadkari.
"They say though we are physically there (in the Congress), our hearts are with you (Gadkari) and hence I have support from all," he added.
He asked the BJP workers to reach out to the people with confidence and advised them to be humble in their conduct.
He also told them to understand the difference between confidence and arrogance.
"One should have confidence but not arrogance. Hence, reach out to the public with humility and tell them about the work done by the party," he said.
Seeking re-election from Nagpur, Gadkari said he will win the upcoming poll with a bigger margin than in 2014 and announced that he had initiated developmental projects worth Rs 70,000 crore in the constituency.
"I have decided not to take the name of opposition candidates and not criticise any party. I will tell the people about the work that I have done and will seek the votes on the basis of work done by me," said Gadkari.
"We have completed the works promised in the last manifesto. We should not give false assurance to public. We will do what we have assured. We will say what we have done," said the Union minister.
The Union minister inaugurated the Central Election Campaigning Office of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies in Nagpur and asked the workers not to comment on anyone's statements.
"The public is intelligent and knows everything. We have done our work and won the trust of people. People love us irrespective of caste, religion, community and party and this love for us will ensure our victory," said Gadkari
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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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