KM Mani a dominant player in Kerala coalition politics for over 4 decades, dies at 86
Kottayam (Kerala), Apr 8: Veteran Kerala Congress leader K M Mani, who died here Tuesday, had been a dominant player in Kerala's coalition politics for over four decades, serving under six Chief Ministers.
Mani, a successful practitioner of pragmatic politics, had handled key portfolios like finance for most Congress-led UDF governments, which came to power alternatively since the late 1970s.
He also had a brief stint as a minister in the CPI(M)-led LDF ministry in early 1980s.
A man of wit and humour, Mani, who was elected to the Kerala Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1965 from Pala constituency of Kottayam district, never lost an election and continued to represent the constituency till his death.
He held several key portfolios, including Home Affairs, Finance and Law, Irrigation and law, Revenue and Law in various ministries headed by stalwarts in Kerala politics including C Achutha Menon, P K Vasudevan Nair, K Karunakaran, E K Nayanar, A K Antony and Oommen Chandy.
Mani had been a Minister for 24 years in various ministries and as the Finance Minister, presented 13 budgets in the state assembly.
His foes in the Kerala Congress politics have always accused him of engineering splits in the regional party for his political benefits.
About the phenomenon of frequent splits in the Kerala Congress and emergence of Kerala Congress with varying suffixes, Mani oncefamously said: "We are a party that splits as we grow and grows as we split".
A lawyer by profession, Mani wielded considerable clout among people of the Syrian Catholic community in Kottayam and Idukki districts, ever since he emerged as a powerful leader in the 1970s in the Kerala Congress, which has its roots among the farmers in the erstwhile Travancore region.
Mani-led Kerala Congress(M) is the largest among nearly nine political outfits having the name of Kerala Congress with varying suffixes and is the third largest constituent in the Congress-led UDF in the state.
He was forced to quit as Finance Minister from the Chandy-led government in November 2015 following the Kerala High Courts observations against him in the bar bribery case, casting a shadow over his career.
Born as the son of a farmer at Marangattupally village near Pala, Mani completed his Bachelors Degree in Law and started practicing as an advocate at Kozhikode as a junior of P Govinda Menon, who later became Judge of Kerala High Court.
Beginning his political career as a Congress worker, Mani had served as the general secretary of Kottayam District Congress Committee before becoming part of the Kerala Congress movement, headed by stalwarts like K M George.
He authored several books, including 'Fiscal Problems of Kerala-Causes and Remedial Measures', 'The People's Socialism", "The Eighth Five year Plan-an Alternative Approach", "Doctrine of Toiling Class", "The Economic Development of Kerala", "Toiling Class Theory" and "Political and Economic Studies".
Annamma Mani is his wife and they have one son and five daughters.
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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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