BJP strengthened its position by installing Bommai as CM in Karnataka: Amit Shah
Davangere, Sep 2: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday lauded Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai for his "small but significant moves" in a short time and said those monitoring Karnataka from the national capital say that the BJP has strengthened its position in the state by installing him.
"Bommai has made some small but significant beginning. He has stopped the tradition of receiving police guard of honour, put a brake on many VVIP practices and he has taken certain steps for transparency.
It is a very short time since Bommai took over but people who are sitting in Delhi and closely watching the developments in Karnataka, say that the BJP has strengthened its position by installing him as the Chief Minister," Amit Shah said at an event here.
In his maiden visit to Karnataka after Bommai took over as Chief Minister on July 28, the BJP leader exuded confidence that the party would come back to power by winning the Assembly election due in 2023.
"Bommai has experience of running the government and leading a decent public life, and he being in the BJP for a very long time, I have full confidence that under his leadership the BJP will come back to power with full mandate (in 2023)," Shah opined.
The Home Minister also heaped praises on former Chief Minister and BJP stalwart B S Yediyurappa, whose resignation as Chief Minister on July 26, brought Bommai to power.
"I am confident that Yediyurappa did not leave any stone unturned for the development of villages and farmers. If a new era of development has started in Karnataka, it happened in the BJP government during the tenure of Yediyurappa," Shah said.
According to him, Yediyurappa himself had decided to give new faces a chance to lead Karnataka and the BJP leadership decided to give the responsibility to Bommai.
Speaking about the COVID-19 management, Shah praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the best handling of pandemic and bringing out the country to a good extent from it with public support.
He said the entire world was watching with surprise how a nation of 1.3 billion population will face the challenge.
"However, under the leadership of the Prime Minister, the nation abided by the lockdown norms initially and then carried out the biggest vaccination drive of the world in India.Today we can proudly say that if there is a nation, which has given maximum vaccines, it is India," Shah said.
The Home Minister also pointed out that the country broke its own previous record of one crore jabs on a single day by vaccinating 1.36 crore people on a single day a couple of days ago.
Speaking about the vaccination drive in Karnataka, Shah said the state has vaccinated almost 90 per cent of its eligible population by carrying out 5.2 crore inoculations.
"Over four crore people have received the first dose while 1.16 crore people have taken the second dose. It is an example what a government can do by taking along people," he explained.
Noting that the economically weaker section was hit hard due to the pandemic, the Home Minister said the BJP government at the Centre gave five kg rice to each member of BPL families for 10 months from May last year.
According to him, 80 crore people from weaker sections had received five kg rice every month for 10 months.
Shah added that the Prime Minister has also announced financial packages to deal with any further wave of COVID-19.
Recalling the oxygen crisis during the second wave of COVID-19, the Home Minister said many new oxygen plants which came up in a very short period have started operations.
Exuding confidence that India will be self reliant in oxygen production in the event of any epidemic outbreak in future, Shah said the country will not require to go anywhere for oxygen.
Seeking public support in the fight against COVID-19, Shah expressed his disappointment over vaccine resistance among some communities. He said it is everyone's responsibility to make sure that no one in the family, friends, and neighbourhood is left without vaccine.
"The 'mantra' to win the battle against coronavirus is the vaccine," Shah said.
He appealed to BJP activists to work with people in spreading awareness about the vaccine and take those people to the vaccination centre who have not taken it.
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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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