Modi's no-holds-barred attack on Rahul, throws 'phone banking' jibe
New Delhi, Sep 1 : In a no-holds-barred attack on Congress and its chief Rahul Gandhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday accused "one privileged family" of being responsible for the huge scam in bank loans through "phone banking" during the UPA regime and vowed to bring back every rupee that has been caught in NPAs.
He described NPAs as the biggest scam of UPA which it tried to bury by dishing out a figure of Rs 2.5 lakh crore as defaulting loans which was actually Rs 9 lakh crore.
Modi did not take either Rahul Gandhi's name or anyone else in the Congress' first family but he has been using the "naamdaar" (privileged) jibe at Rahul Gandhi and his family.
Launching the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) at a function here, Modi said none of the loans that turned bad were given during the NDA regime. He said his government has identified 12 largest defaulters of pre-2104 period, who failed repay Rs 1.75 lakh crore and action to recover the amount is on.
The government has also identified another 27 defaulters of Rs 1 lakh crore NPAs and the government ws working on its recovery, he said adding that this was found during a review of defaults of above Rs 50 crore after he took charge.
The Prime Minister said earlier the banks used to chase such defaulters but today they were running to the banks to hand over the money as investigative and enforcement agencies were tightening the noose around them.
"Those who were feeling that the loan amount they have taken from banks with the help of 'naamdaar family', will remain always 'incoming' but now 'outgoing' has started from their accounts," he said.
"Every rupee that has been forced into defaults will recovered and used for the development of the poor," he said.
The Prime Minister said the 'privileged' family left a number of landmines in the economy through their indiscriminate lending by phone banking.
"If the government had made it public, it would have had a disastrous effect on economy. The NDA government meticulously brought the country out of this crisis," he said.
The Prime Minister said that his government has taken a number of reform measures like the passage of Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, which would enable seizure of the assets of defaulters even if they are not in the country, and adoption of a professional approach in the banking system.
He said a new measure that has been introduced in banking through which the passport details of those who take big loans were being collected so that they cannot flee the country after defaulting.
Apparently replying to Rahul Gandhi, who had claimed two days ago that the NPAs were only to the tune of Rs 2.5 lakh crore during UPA, Modi said the reality was to the contrary.
"The claim that it was Rs 2.5 lakh crore was a lie and fraud. In fact the real figure was Rs 9 lakh crore. At a time when huge scams were coming to the fore, they (Congress) were busy in suppressing their biggest scam," he said.
He said the UPA government knew that some day the fraud would be unearthed. So they hatched a conspiracy and misled the country by hiding the real figures.
"Instead, when the loans were turning bad, the "privileged" put pressure on the banks to give further loans in the name of 'restructuring' which was another fraud. The banks knew that the money would not come but the officials continued to advance loans recklessly because they had the 'blessings' of the 'naamdaars', he said.
"After independence till 2008, the banks had advanced loans to the tune of Rs 18 lakh crore while in six years alone between 2008-14, it jumped up to Rs 52 lakh crore," he said.
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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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