PM's silence on atrocities in Gaza 'total betrayal' of what India has stood for: Cong
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Wednesday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is maintaining a complete silence on the "horrific atrocities" in Gaza and this is "moral cowardice" and "total betrayal" of all that India has stood for.
In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh wrote, "To appease his good friend President Trump and in solidarity with his other good friend Bibi Netanyahu, Prime Minister Modi has welcomed President Trump's new 20-point plan for Gaza."
But fundamental and disturbing questions on the plan remain, he said.
"Where are the people of Gaza themselves in the system of governance proposed? Where is the roadmap for a full-fledged Palestinian state to come into being," the Congress leader asked.
He also asked how much longer will the US and Israel continue to ignore Palestinian statehood - which has already been recognised by 157 member-countries of the UN with India having led the way in November 1988.
"Where is the accountability for the genocide that has been carried out in Gaza over the past twenty months?" he wrote.
"The PM has maintained a complete silence on the horrific atrocities that have led to the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza. This is extreme moral cowardice and a total betrayal of all that India has stood for," Ramesh said.
Congress leader Pawan Khera also said any attempt to undermine the genocide that people of Palestine have endured deserves contempt and condemnation.
"Any plan that undermines the agency of the long-oppressed Palestinian people and fails to ensure accountability for the genocide they have endured since 2023 is deserving of contempt and condemnation.True justice can be restored only through the establishment of the Palestinian state. Everything else is a mere smokescreen to perpetuate the occupation," Khera said in a post on X.
The Congress has been questioning the silence of the Modi government on "atrocities" in Gaza.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC) last week also expressed "profound distress" over the ongoing "genocide" of innocent civilians in Gaza, and said India has always been a beacon of moral conscience but "has now shamefully been reduced to a silent spectator".
"India has always been a beacon of moral conscience and the champion of the post-colonial world, it has now shamefully been reduced to a silent spectator. Our foreign policy has now acquired a moral taint," the CWC resolution said.
Modi on Tuesday welcomed US President Donald Trump's plan to end the Gaza conflict, saying that it provides a viable path to long-term peace, security and development for the Palestinian and Israeli people, as well as the larger West Asian region.
In an X post after Trump announced the plan in the presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Modi expressed hope that "all concerned will come together behind President Trump's initiative and support this effort to end conflict and secure peace."
Trump and Netanyahu said on Monday that they have agreed on a plan to end the war in Gaza.
Trump had laid out the 20-point plan to end the Israel-Hamas war and establish a temporary governing board in the war-battered Palestinian territory, which would be headed by Trump and include former British prime minister Tony Blair.
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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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