Proud moment for Karnataka's Samashti Gubbi as PM lauds her efforts to popularise Sanskrit
Bengaluru (PTI): For over three years Bengaluru's Samashti Gubbi has been striving hard to popularise Sanskrit, one of the oldest languages of India.
Her efforts paid off on Sunday when she received a big boost with praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In his 'Mann Ki Baat' radio address, Modi specifically referred to Gubbi's silent efforts to make Sanskrit a spoken language.
Speaking about Sanskrit, the Prime Minister said the language has played a big role in the progress of ancient Indian knowledge and science.
He said nowadays, many people are making such an effort in Bengaluru.
"There is a park in Bengaluru - Cubbon Park! In this park, the people here have started a new tradition. Here, once a week, every Sunday, children, youth and elders talk to each other in Sanskrit," Modi said.
He also pointed out that many debate sessions are also organised in Sanskrit.
"The name of this initiative is Sanskrit Weekend! It has been started by Samashti Gubbi ji through a website. This initiative which started a few days ago has become very popular among the people of Bengaluru," Modi said.
If we all join such efforts, we will get to learn a lot from such an ancient and scientific language of the world, he noted.
Samashti Gubbi's joy knew no bounds when Prime Minister Modi asked countrymen to take a cue from her in promoting the ancient language.
"It's a joyous moment for me when the Prime Minister appreciated my efforts. I have been working to popularise Sanskrit for the past many years," Samashti Gubbi told PTI.
An M.A in Sanskrit, Gubbi has been teaching this language.
She said she started a portal called sthaayi.in in 2021 for the promotion of Sanskrit.
"We organise bike rides for Sanskrit speakers. We also have a Sanskrit band where we translate Bollywood and Kannada film songs into Sanskrit and play them," Gubbi said.
Her 'Sanskrit Weekend' at Cubbon Park had seen the participation of 800 to 900 people.
Is the knowledge of 'Vyakarana' (Sanskrit grammar) a must to learn spoken Sanskrit? To this, Gubbi said, "We don't learn grammar of any language as a child. We just pick up the language."
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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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