Yeddyurappa dubs Kumaraswamy a 'non-serious" CM, as govt completes 6 months in office
Bengaluru, Nov 23: As the Congress-JD(S) coalition government completed six months in office on Friday, state BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa said its survival for six months itself was a big success of the "non serious" Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.
The government, he said, has neither any direction nor goal, and alleged that Kumaraswamy has spent half of his days in office by visiting temples and the other half by passing time in posh hotels.
"The big achievement of this government, which has completed six months in office, is making false promises to the people.
Its six months survival itself is a big success of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy," Yeddyurappa said.
He demanded to know why farmers were committing suicide 'on a daily basis', if the government, as claimed, had taken steps in the last six months to alleviate the sufferings of the people.
"Even today farmers committed suicide in Mandya and Kalaburgi.
Most shocking is that the farmers who are committing suicide are holding the chief minister responsible for their deaths" he said in a statement.
On Kumaraswamy's comments that his government was a "child of circumstances", Yeddyurappa said that as far as one's knowledge goes, a baby born out of circumstances would neither have any direction nor a goal to achieve.
"This government, born out of circumstances, has no direction and goal. Surprisingly, the non-serious chief minister Kumaraswamy has spent half of his days in office by visiting temples and the other half by passing time in posh hotels," he added.
On May 23, JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy was sworn-in as chief minister at a grand ceremony attended by a galaxy of top leaders and regional satraps in a rare public show of unity, perceived as a possible harbinger of a broad based anti-BJP alliance ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The Congress and JD(S), which came second and third respectively in the May 12 Karnataka assembly polls, joined hands to form a government in the post poll scenario to keep BJP, the single largest party, out of power.
Yeddyurappa opined that the only 'achievement' of Kumaraswamy was issuing statements, 'insulting' the people in general and the farmers in particular.
"Power has gone to his head and has made him speak arrogantly and repeatedly say that if the situation warrants I will put in my papers and go home.
This kind of statement is an insult to the people in a democratic set up," he said.
Expressing surprise over Congress leaders' tolerance towards this "non-performing" government and the "arrogance" of the chief minister, who even bullied a woman farmer leader, 'asking her where she had slept for the last four years, he said the Chief Minister has disgraced women by saying so.
Kumaraswamy had clarified that he did not make such a comment to disrespect the woman.
"What I meant was, "why have you woken up to that situation now? Were you sleeping?' I would never disrespect a woman. These are not farmers who are agitating but these are sponsored protests," he had said.
Yeddyurappa said the Congress should be held responsible for all the 'failures' and 'follies of the Chief Minister and added that people would teach the party a lesson in the coming days.
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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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