PM Modi should step in and "stop the poison from spreading": Naseeruddin Shah on Prophet row
New Delhi, Jun 8: Amid global condemnation over BJP leaders comments on Prophet Mohammad, veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah on Wednesday said he hopes good sense prevails and the "hate wave" against Muslims dissipates even if that doesn't happen in his lifetime.
In an interview to a news channel, the multiple National Award winner also appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to step in and "stop this poison from spreading".
"I would appeal to him (PM) to knock some good sense into these people. If he believes what was said at the 'Dharam Sansad' in Rishikesh, then he should say so. If he does not, then he should say so," he said.
The BJP on Sunday suspended its national spokesperson Nupur Sharma and expelled its Delhi media head Naveen Kumar Jindal after their controversial remarks against the Prophet.
Amid protests by Muslim groups over the remarks, the party also issued a statement aimed at assuaging the concerns of minorities and distancing itself from these members, asserting that it respects all religions and strongly denounces the insult of any religious personality.
The controversial remarks also sparked a Twitter trend in the Arab world calling for a boycott of Indian products.
"What the Indian government did was too little, too late. It was a week before they even opened their mouths and said anything condemning these kinds of statements.
"These kinds of statements in a country like Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan, which we hope to include in 'Akhand Bharat' some day, would result in a death sentence because it would be considered blasphemous. Here, there was not a sound from the top and absolutely no acknowledgement of the hurt caused to millions of believers," Shah told NDTV.
After her suspension from the ruling party, Sharma issued an "unconditional apology", something the senior actor dubbed "insincere".
"It's hardly meant to assuage hurt feelings. I wouldn't be surprised if such a hate speech occurs again. It's ironic you talk of peace and unity, you get locked up in jail for more than a year. You talk of genocide and you get a slap on the wrist. There are double standards working here. It's like the double-think of George Orwell's '1984'."
Shah said Sharma was not a "fringe element" as the BJP has claimed.
He also argued that it was "high time" that sensible Hindus spoke up against the hate towards the Muslim community.
Shah said he puts "complete responsibility" on TV news channels and social media for "propagating hate".
"It's a manufactured hate. It's a kind of venom that begins to spew when you are confronted with somebody with an opposite opinion... I wonder how long it is before the shivlings start to be searched under every church," Shah said in an apparent reference to the ongoing case of the Gyanvapi mosque complex in Varanasi.
He, however, condemned death threats against Sharma and her family, who are now under Delhi Police's protection.
"This route (threats) is wrong. That's why Pakistan and Afghanistan are in a mess. We do not want to emulate these countries but willy-nilly are we doing so. Not (for) just slaughtering a cow but on the suspicion of slaughtering a cow people are being lynched, untouchables who were skinning a dead cow are whipped in public. These are not the kinds of things that used to happen in India, but in barbaric Islamic countries."
Asked if the Khans - Shah Rukh, Salman and Saif - can open up about their thoughts today, Shah said he can't speak for these Bollywood stars.
"They would be risking too much but I don't know how they explain it to their conscience about it. I think they have too much to lose."
He also praised Shah Rukh, his co-star of many films such as "Chamatkar" and "Chaahat", for handling media scrutiny with grace last year when his son Aryan was arrested in connection with a drugs case.
He also noted that instead of being acknowledged for all the work done during the lockdown, Sonu Sood gets raided.
Asked to comment on how the film industry was cozying up to the government, Shah said they want to be on the winning side.
"It does look like the BJP is going to stay on the winning side for a while. It's nothing new..."
Calling "The Kashmir Files" an "almost fictionalised version of the suffering of the Kashmiri Hindus", the actor said the government is promoting it instead of ensuring the security and rehabilitation for the community.
"It is propaganda and people are willingly participating in it. I fear there will be more such pseudo-patriotic films (in future)."
Shah further said he doesn't feel marginalised as a Muslim in India as he comes from privilege as a senior actor with social capital.
"I'm certainly not disgruntled, or unhappy in the country. This has been the country I've been brought up in, taught to love, the country I've been told I belong to, and I feel I belong to. I'm luckily in a position where I can't be marginalised.
"I'm still getting work, it's not that my anti-establishment statements have resulted in me being blacklisted. I just wish that somehow good sense prevails but I'm not optimistic that will happen very soon. This hate wave will dissipate some day. it may not happen in my lifetime, but it will dissipate some day."
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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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