Coalition govt stable, Congress-JDS to fight LS polls together: Siddaramaiah
Bengaluru, Dec 27 : Rubbishing BJP's claim that the coalition government in Karnataka would collapse due to internal rift, Congress leader Siddaramaiah Thursday said the Congress-JDS alliance was strong and they would contest the Lok Sabha polls together.
The leader of the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition coordination committee also ruled out any differences between him and Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara over portfolio allocation to newly inducted ministers.
"They (BJP) don't want to sit in the opposition and work. By using some wrong means, they want to form the government," Siddaramaiah said.
He was reacting to senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker Umesh Katti's claim that 15 disgruntled MLAs from the ruling coalition were in touch with him and that the saffron party would form the new government in Karnataka by next week.
Speaking to reporters in Hubballi, Siddaramaiah said, "Nothing will happen, the government will not fall. Government will complete its term; there is no problem at all."
Reacting to the views of JDS leaders that the party should contest the Lok Sabha polls alone, the veteran Congress leader said both the parties had fought the by-elections together and the alliance will remain intact for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as well.
"I don't know what you are saying... (JDS wanting to go alone) is news for me," the former Karnataka chief minister said, adding that the seat sharing formula was yet to be finalised.
"About the number of seats, all those things we have not been discussed, it will be discussed when we will sit together, which has not yet happened," he said.
Unhappy with the Congress' "big brother attitude" in the ruling coalition in Karnataka, JD(S) workers and local leaders have apparently asked the leadership to contest all 28 Lok Sabha seats in 2019 general elections alone.
Congress and JD(S) had earlier announced that they would fight the polls together.
Expressing confidence that former minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, sulking over being dropped from the ministry, would not quit as party MLA, Siddaramaiah said, "He is basically a Congress man, he will stay with us."
"He may be upset that he was removed from the ministry, so he has gone incommunicado, I also tried, but could not speak to him... As I understand him, he will remain and work for the Congress," he added.
Jarkiholi has threatened to quit as Congress lawmaker and is likely to announce his decision soon amid reports that he might join the BJP.
Siddaramaiah also said that portfolios to eight newly inducted ministers would be announced after approval from Congress President Rahul Gandhi.
Terming reports about the rift with Parameshwara as "totally false", he said, "We haven't spoken at the meeting, as reported."
According to reports, the meeting between top party leaders on Wednesday to decide on portfolios was not cordial, as Parameshwara expressed displeasure after Siddaramiah asked him to give up some key portfolios.
Parameshwara currently holds the departments of home, Bengaluru city related affairs, youth affairs and sports.
Also, hitting out at media reports about a rift with Siddaramaiah, Parameshwara said, "It is all your creation, which is false. By giving false news... You will lose the credibility."
"There is no issue of giving up any ministry and it is applicable to every one... Everything will be decided by the high command," he added.
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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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