Mali's deposed president returns home under tight security
Bamako: Former Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita returned home after being detained for 10 days by the ruling military junta that staged a coup d'etat last week, a family member said Thursday.
Keita was detained by the military on Aug. 18 when a group of military officers staged a coup and took him and other government officials to Kati, about 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the capital, Bamako. Late that night he resigned as president.
Keita was brought home around 2 a.m. Thursday by the military, according to a family member who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to speak to the press. New guards were put on duty at the president's residence, and the junta must approve all visitors, the family member added.
His release to his home under tight military security comes amid negotiations with the 15-nation West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS, whose leaders are meeting Friday in a virtual summit to further discuss the crisis in Mali.
The former leader's safety was discussed during earlier negotiations that were suspended on Monday after failing to reach an agreement on who will lead Mali and how long the transition back to democracy will take.
We asked them to allow ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to return to his personal residence, where he would be given tight security, but they said he (might) travel abroad and not return to answer questions they may have for him,'' special envoy and former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan said when describing the negotiations to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, according to a communique issued Wednesday.
Keita's release could be a signal that Mali's ruling junta are trying to meet some of the demands by ECOWAS. Mali's military leaders have asked for ECOWAS to lift sanctions already in place, according to Jonathan.
We told them that the authority to do such was only in the hands of ECOWAS heads of state, he said, referring to the upcoming summit on Friday.
The ECOWAS negotiating team met with Keita during their visit to Mali's capital last week. Keita confirmed that he resigned voluntarily, adding that he was no longer interested in returning to his former position, according to the ECOWAS delegation's statement.
The main demand from ECOWAS, however, is at a standstill.
West Africa's leaders have demanded that Mali's junta put in place an interim government, headed by a civilian or retired military officer, that would last no longer than one year before democratic elections are held to restore the country to civilian rule.
The Interim Government would then organize elections to restore full constitutional order, Jonathan said in the briefing.
Mali's junta, calling itself the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, has proposed staying in power for three years until Mali's next election until 2023. The junta's proposed time frame is more than double the time it took to hold a vote after a similar coup in 2012, and would allow the soldiers who overthrew a democratically elected president to remain in power all that time.
African countries and the wider international community have expressed fears that Mali's upheaval could allow Islamic extremists in the country to extend their reach. Mali has been fighting the extremists with heavy international support for more than seven years, and jihadists have used previous power vacuums in the country to expand their territory.
About two-thirds of Mali is occupied by terrorists, and it makes common sense to secure the country, rather than pursuing individual interests, Nigeria's president said in the statement issued by his office.
West Africa will reach a common position on Mali on Friday, he said.
Right after the coup, ECOWAS leaders said they were considering mobilizing a standby military force to restore civilian rule, but that prospect has become unlikely after thousands of Malians took to the streets of the capital last week to support the junta. The regional group also shut borders, halted financial flows with Mali and threatened further sanctions.
The ECOWAS demand comes amid mounting international pressure on the junta.
The International Organization of Francophonie representing the world's French-speaking countries on Wednesday suspended Mali. The organization will send a high-level delegation to Mali's capital, Bamako, in the coming days to evaluate the situation, it said in a statement.
The European Union will also be suspending its security training missions in Mali.
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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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