No one can stop us from rewriting history to free it from distortions: Amit Shah
New Delhi (PTI): Home Minister Amit Shah has said no one can stop rewriting of history to free it from "distortions" as he urged academicians to research and write about 30 great Indian empires and 300 warriors who showed exemplary valour to fight for the motherland.
The home minister said on Thursday had it not been for Veer Lachit Barphukan, the Northeast would not have been a part of India. He was addressing a plenary session of the 400th birth anniversary celebrations of the legendary Ahom general.
He protected not only Northeast India but the entire Southeast Asia from "religious fanatic" Aurangzeb, Shah said.
The home minister asked Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to translate literary work on the life and times of Lachit Barphukan into 10 Indian languages, including Hindi, so that children can take inspiration from him.
"I often come across complaints that our history has been distorted and tampered with. These allegations could be true. But who stops it from being corrected now? Who stops us from writing the correct history now," he said.
Shah urged historians and students to identify 30 great empires in Indian history that ruled for more than 150 years in any part of the country and 300 warriors who showed exemplary courage to fight for the independence of the country and conduct research and write extensively about them.
"If we do this, we will see that the true history of India will be established and the lies will end spontaneously. In India, we now have a government which supports any endeavour to promote the glory of the country. We will work towards reviving India's glorious history," Shah said at the event organised by the Assam government.
Shah said a nation that does not derive pride from its glorious past, that does not garner inspiration from its heroes can never create a bright future for itself and cannot create better citizens and a golden future.
The minister said Barphukan fought the Saraighat battle in adverse circumstances by taking together different tribes, using local resources to build small arms and boats to take on the mighty army led by Ram Singh of Amer.
"The Mughal army did not have that iota of patriotism and dedication for the country that Barphukan and his soldiers had. This was a victory of patriotism. They won and not only secured the sovereignty, culture and heritage of Ahom but also saved entire Southeast Asia from religiously fanatic invader Aurangzeb," he said.
The home minister said that after this crushing defeat, foreign invaders from Delhi could never gather the courage to invade Assam again.
"If Lachit Barphukan was not there in Assam during those times, Assam and Northeast India would have never become a part of India," Shah said.
He further said that the 400th birth anniversary of Lachit Borphukan unveils a new episode of India's history in which Assam rulers defeated Muslim invaders of different ages and secured the sovereignty of their motherland.
Shah said Assam Chief Minister Sarma unveiled stories of glorious stories of Ahom warriors from Maharaj Prithu who defeated Bakhtiar Khalji in 1206 to Lachit Barphukan who defeated the Mughals in 1671 and urged students of history to look at the exhibition organised on the occasion.
Shah said that right from 1206 to 1671 Assam was invaded 22 times by Muslim invaders but could not keep it under the thumb of Muslim rule for long because of the relentless commitment of its people to independence.
He said it is because of this attitude, the Northeast has kept its culture intact. Its beautiful region, language, culture, dresses, music and food remained untouched by foreign influences.
He said be it Akbar or Aurangzeb, Qutb ud-Din Aibak or Iltutmish, Bakhtiyar Khalji or Iwaz Khali, Muhammad bin Tughluq or Mir Jumla, everyone has faced defeat in Assam by the valour of Ahom Kings.
Shah said the times in which Lachit Barphukan raised his sword against the Mughals, Chhatrapati Shivaji in the south of India, Guru Govind Singh in the north, and Veer Durgadas Rathore in Rajasthan waged the same battle against the same enemy.
"On account of their relentless efforts, exemplary courage and sacrifice, the Mughal empire collapsed," he said.
Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameswar Teli, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Minister of Water Resources and Public Affairs Pijush Hazarika, Assam Legislative Assembly Speaker Biswajit Daimary, and Justice (Retd) Ranjan Gogoi attended the event.
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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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