Karnataka has shown ray of hope by defeating fascist, communal and divisive BJP: Mehbooba Mufti
Bengaluru (PTI): Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Sunday hailed the people of Karnataka for giving a ray of hope to the entire country by defeating a "fascist, communal and divisive" BJP in the recently-concluded Assembly election.
She, however, cautioned people against the developments that happened in Delhi, saying that it was a wake-up call for everyone as it can happen anywhere in the country.
Mufti was referring to an ordinance passed by the President on Friday, May 20, giving overriding powers to the Delhi's Lieutenant Governor -- a union government nominee -- to oversee the transfer, posting and disciplinary proceedings against civil servants in Delhi.
The ordinance was brought in just a week after a Supreme Court Constitution Bench had ruled that powers over the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers in the national capital lay with the Delhi government and not the Central government. The apex court had made it clear that the Central government cannot take over governance of elected state governments.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, she said, "Whatever happened in Delhi is a wake-up call for everyone. Whatever happened in Jammu and Kashmir is going to happen around the whole country."
The PDP chief added, "BJP doesn't want to have any opposition. The Delhi government has been disempowered. This is going to happen to everyone."
Mufti also said she will not contest the Assembly election till Article 370 is restored in her state. However her party PDP will contest the election.
"Karnataka has given a ray of hope to the entire country. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and everyone in the BJP were using religion in the Karnataka elections but still people voted them out," she said in a press conference here.
According to her, Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra had laid the foundation for Congress' victory in Karnataka Assembly election.
"Last five years were hit by hatred and communal politics. Divisive politics was played here also in Karnataka. Now Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar will heal the wounds," the PDP chief said.
Mufti said Jammu and Kashmir was the first state to be hit by the "divisive and communal politics" but the people of Karnataka voted BJP of of power.
Talking about her state, she said Jammu and Kashmir was given special status, which was the best example of federalism, but "the state was dismembered, disintegrated and disempowered by abrogating Article 370 of the Indian constitution".
"Today ours is the most militarised state where everyday harassing and frisking are happening in the name of security," the former chief minister pointed out.
She said she spoke about the her state to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and others during the swearing-in ceremony of Siddaramaiah as Karnataka CM.
"I want people to pay attention to what has happened in J&K. All our passports have been confiscated. If this can happen to a family where I was a CM, and my mother is wife of Late Mufti Mohammed Syed, a former CM and former union minister, it can happen to everyone," the PDP chief said.
Stating that Jammu and Kashmir has become an open-air prison, Mufti alleged that China is now interfering in the its affairs, which only Pakistan used to do earlier.
"This is what the BJP has done by abrogating Article 370," she lamented.
On a question about Congress not inviting many opposition parties' chief ministers during the swearing in ceremony of Siddaramaiah yesterday, such as BRS's K Chandrasekhar Rao, YSR Congress's Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, AAP's Arvind Kejriwal and CPI(M)'s Pinarayi Vijayan, Mehbooba Mufti said the Congress has to sacrifice more; "otherwise there are other options".
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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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