High time PM breaks 'silence' on 'proliferation' of Islamophobic incidents: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi(PTI): Amid outrage over the controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammad by the BJP's now-sacked two functionaries, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said it is high time Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke his silence on the "proliferation of hate speech and Islamophobic incidents" in the country, asserting that his silence is interpreted by some as condoning what has been happening.
In an interview with PTI, Tharoor said the irony is that in recent years the Indian government has taken "impressive steps" to strengthen relations with Islamic countries, but that risks being "seriously undermined".
The former Union minister also weighed in on the ongoing debate on the need for blasphemy laws in the country, and said he is not a fan of such laws because the history of such laws elsewhere is littered with their misuse and abuse.
"The existence of a blasphemy law tends to encourage both excessive frivolous litigation and mob misconduct by those who take the law into their own hands. I think our current hate speech laws and Section 295A are quite adequate to deal with such misbehaviour," Tharoor said.
The issue is of the willingness of the police and local authorities to enforce the law, without fear or favour, against whoever violates it, he said.
"Exemplary action against any and all offenders will have a salutary effect in reducing such cases in future," the Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram said.
Asked about the outrage and condemnation from a number of Muslim-majority nations over the controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammad and calls that Prime Minister Modi should have intervened in the matter when the comments were made, Tharoor said, "I believe it is high time the PM broke his silence on the proliferation of hate speech and Islamophobic incidents in our country, because his silence is interpreted by some as condoning what has been happening."
"I am sure he (Modi) understands that this kind of divisive rhetoric is undermining his own vision for India's development and prosperity," he said.
Social cohesion and national harmony are a must for any nation to progress and grow, Tharoor asserted.
"That is why, in the name of 'sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas', he must publicly call for a stop to such behaviour," he said.
Asked about the impact of the row over diplomacy and foreign policy, Tharoor said the irony is that in recent years the Indian government has taken impressive steps to strengthen relations with Islamic countries, especially in the Gulf.
"That risks being seriously undermined, as the media in these countries is replete with stories about the increasing 'demonisation' of Muslims in our country," the former minister of state for external affairs said.
The BJP had last Sunday suspended its national spokesperson Nupur Sharma and expelled its Delhi media head Naveen Kumar Jindal after their controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammad.
Two persons succumbed to gunshot wounds in Jharkhand capital Ranchi and fresh demonstrations were held in West Bengal's Howrah on Saturday as tension prevailed in several parts of the country, a day after the violent protests against the controversial remarks.
On the protests, Tharoor said section 295A of the Indian Penal Code clearly makes it a criminal offence to outrage the religious feelings of any class of citizens of India ; anyone who by 'words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise, insults or attempts to insult the religion or religious beliefs' of Indians should have been prosecuted by the police.
"I am glad to see that action is being taken, even if belatedly, against those who injected such toxic elements into our national discourse," he said.
Asked about the Congress being accused of peddling in 'soft Hindutva' in the past and if the party needs to take an aggressive stance on issues of the minorities such as the row over the comments on the Prophet, Tharoor said he believes the Congress has been clear in its denunciation of this recent incident.
"We believe in an inclusive idea of India and should and must speak up whenever that idea is violated by word or deed -- whoever does it," he asserted.
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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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