Sofia's arrest an assault on Constitution: Congress
New Delhi, Sep 4 : Describing the arrest of a woman research scholar for raising slogans against the Tamil Nadu BJP President as an "assault" on the Constitution and "Idea of India", the Congress on Tuesday said there was an "undeclared Emergency" in the country and fascism playing out in full glory.
Taking on the BJP over the arrest of Lois Sofia and the recent arrest of five rights activists, the Congress said the 2019 elections would be a contest between fascism represented by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and democracy represented by progressive and pluralistic forces.
"Fascism was on full display when a young lady travelling from Chennai to Tuticorin hit a raw nerve when she allegedly shouted 'Down with fascist BJP government'," Congress leader Manish Tewari told the media here referring to Sofia's arrest.
Sofia, 25, shouted slogans against the Modi government on a Tuticorin-bound aircraft when she was seated behind Tamil Nadu BJP President Tamilisai Soundararajan.
She was arrested following a complaint from Soundararajan, who alleged that Sofia had uttered "unspeakable words" at the airport lounge.
Charged with "public nuisance" under the Indian Penal Code, she was remanded to 15 days judicial custody. However, a court in Tuticorin granted her bail on Tuesday .
Claiming that the police was pressurized to register a case, Tewari said: "If this is not undeclared Emergency, then what is?
"This (arrest) was not only an assault on the freedom of speech and expression, not only was an assault on our fundamental rights, it was an assault on the Constitution, it was an assault on democracy, it was an assault on the Idea of India and it was fascism playing itself out in its fullest glory," said Tewari.
Referring to the arrest of five rights activists last week, Tewari said: "This is a pattern which has been playing out repeatedly and systematically since 2014."
Listing the incidents of muzzling dissent, the Congress leader said the assault on the students of Film Institute of Pune, events that led to the suicide of Hyderabad University student Rohith Vemula, derecognition of Periyar study circle in IIT-Madras, stopping the screening of a Kashmiri film in IIT-Delhi and vilification campaign against the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) were among many such instances.
He said that there was a narrative which the BJP and the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh) were trying to peddle.
"If you question the BJP, you are anti-national. If you question the government, you are a traitor. If you question the establishment, you are downright seditious. Is this the country that millions of people sacrificed their lives to bring into existence? Is this the India that we want?
"It is becoming increasingly clear that the battle for 2019 is going to be between fascism represented by the BJP and democracy represented by the progressive and pluralistic forces of this country. This is going to be the battle for 2019.
"This is not merely the removal of a government and its replacement by another. 2019 is going to be a battle for the very soul of India," added Tewari.
Besides the Congress, the DMK too has come out in support of Sofia with party President M.K. Stalin urging the Tamil Nadu government to withdraw the case filed against her.
Welcoming the bail granted to Sofia, Stalin said the AIADMK government should not only withdraw the case filed against her but also take action against the BJP members who had threatened her family.
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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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