NCP leader demands suspension of woman IAS officer after her anti-Gandhi tweet sparks row
New Delhi: A Mumbai woman IAS officer's tweet virtually making a call to erase Mahatma Gandhiji from everywhere in the world, including Indian currency notes, sparked a controversy, forcing her to backtrack, on Saturday.
Nidhi Choudhari, currently Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Special) in the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation, had made the tweets on May 17.
"What an exceptional celebration of 150th birth anniversary year is going on... High time, we removed his face from our currency, his statues from across the world, rename institutions/roads named after him! That would be a real tribute to all of us! ThankU #Godse for 30.01.1948."
Terming the IAS officer's tweets as "derogatory to Mahatma Gandhi," Nationalist Congress Party legislator Jitendra Awhad demanded that Choudhari should be immediately suspended for glorifying Nathuram Godse, who assassinated Bapu.
"We seek immediate suspension of the IAS officer for her derogatory tweets against Mahatma Gandhi. She has also glorified Godse. This is shocking and such things should not be tolerated," Awhad told mediapersons today.
Under fire from various quarters, Choudhari said on Friday she had deleted her controversial tweet.
"I have deleted my tweet of 17.05.2019 w.r.t. Gandhiji because some people misunderstood it. If only they had followed my timeline since 2011, they would've understood that I would NEVER even dream of insulting Gandhiji. I bow before him with deepest regard and will do so till last breath," she tweeted.
Awhad pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has categorically said that he would not tolerate any kind of insults to Gandhiji or any attempts to glorify his assassin.
On Friday, Choudhari posted a tweet on new Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, but without directly taking her name: "A proud moment. Women are best at managing budgets... hope Indian economy achieves greater heights under her leadership."
Adding in a lighter vein, Choudhari also demanded that Goods and Services Tax (GST) on sanitary napkins, garments and beauty services would be reduced and said: "I would want it to be zero."
I have deleted my tweet of 17.05.2019 w.r.t. GandhiJi because some people misunderstood it
— Nidhi Choudhari?☪️✝️☸️ (@nidhichoudhari) May 31, 2019
If only they had followed my timeline since 2011 they would've understood that I would NEVER even dream of insulting GandhiJi
I bow before him with deepest regard & will do till last breath pic.twitter.com/CSjaKHF9BJ
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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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