BJP national gen secy Agrawal rejects calls for Vijayendra's ouster as party's Karnataka chief
Bengaluru, Dec 7: Rejecting calls for B Y Vijayendra's ouster as Karnataka BJP president, party national general secretary Radha Mohan Das Agrawal on Saturday said the leadership is not changed based on someone's demand.
Any action against senior MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, who has been served a show cause notice, will be decided by high command based on his response, he said.
The state BJP core committee that met, amid factional rift within the BJP with the Yatnal-led group openly criticising Vijayendra and not accepting his leadership, discussed controlling such acts of "indiscipline" in consultation with the high command.
It was also decided at the meeting to bring to the notice of the party's national leadership for strict action against MLAs S T Somashekar and Shivaram Hebbar, who are involved in "anti-party" activities and have identified themselves with the Congress party.
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"The power to change or decide on the party leadership (in the state) lies with the grassroot level workers or with the national leadership of the party. No other individual has such powers," Agrawal said responding to a question about Yatnal and the team talking about changing leadership in the state.
Speaking to reporters after the core committee meeting, he said, "Party leadership is not changed based on someone's demand. Whatever is appropriate based on organisational requirements at that point in time, decisions are accordingly made. Today Vijayendra is appropriate, so he is our state president."
A faction of party leaders led by Yatnal, which includes MLAs Ramesh Jarkiholi, B P Harish, and former lawmakers Aravind Limbavali, Kumar Bangarappa and G M Siddeshwara among others, are critical of state leadership, especially Vijayendra.
Yatnal and a few of these leaders have been openly critical of Vijayendra, accusing him of indulging in "adjustment politics" with the ruling Congress. They also accused him and his father, veteran leader B S Yediyurappa, of trying to keep the party under their clutches.
Responding to a question, Agrawal said, "There is nothing like Yatnal versus Vijayendra or Yatnal versus BJP in Karnataka... a show cause notice has been given to Yatnal and we will wait for his reply."
Once the response to the show cause notice is received, the party will decide the next course of action, he said, adding that "...we are not only talking about taking action, but we are also talking about not taking action. Everything will depend on what happens."
The BJP's central disciplinary committee earlier this week issued a show cause notice to Yatnal for "defiance" and hurling "false and veiled" allegations against the party's state leadership, especially Vijayendra.
Yatnal, who subsequently met leaders in Delhi, said he had submitted a six-page reply to the notice served to him, and has explained to the party leadership in detail, the alleged "adjustment politics, grand corruption and dynastic politics" prevailing in the Karnataka unit of the party.
Speaking to reporters after the crore committee meeting, Vijayendra said, at the meeting it was decided to control "indiscipline" activities of some party leaders that has been going on for a few months now, bringing it to the notice of the high command.
To a question on action against Yatnal and team, he said, the matter is already before the party high command. "He (Yatnal) had also appeared before the disciplinary committee. The ball is already in the high command's court, they will decide."
The state BJP chief said, at the core committee meeting, it was unanimously decided to take strict action against MLAs S T Somashekar and Shivaram Hebbar who are involved in "anti-party" activities and have identified themselves with the Congress party.
"Things will be brought to the notice of the party's national president and a decision will be taken at the earliest. At the core committee meeting, almost every member was of the view that a decision should be taken regarding suspending them and moving for their disqualification as MLAs immediately, in consultation with the high command," he said.
Vijayendra further said, the core committee discussed the party's defeat in Sandur and Shiggaon Assembly bypolls recently, and decided to constitute a fact finding team led by former chief minister D V Sadananada Gowda and party vice president N Mahesh.
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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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