Oppn should block higher education bill in Parliament: Yashwant Sinha

Former Union Minister Yashwant Sinha on Friday urged the opposition to block the introduction of the Higher Education Commission of India Bill in Parliament, alleging that the proposed legislation will end the autonomy of the institutes rather than granting them more powers.

Sinha's views were endorsed by many opposition leaders who criticised the draft Higher Education Commission of India (Repeal of University Grants Commission Act) Bill and called it a move to "over-centralise" education.

They were speaking at a national convention on public higher education, organised by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association here.

Rajya Sabha MP Manoj Jha of the RJD called HECI the "bullet train of education", referring to the NDA government's pet project -- the MumbaiAhmedabad high-speed rail corridor.

Sinha, who recently quit the BJP, said the HECI Bill is a "comic legislation" and said that it even has the power to close institutes of higher learning.

"UGC will be abolished...It will not only be replaced by HECI but will be replaced by HRD Ministry because the funding powers are going to be vested with the government," Sinha said.

He said that distinguished vice-chancellors will be forced to sit outside the rooms of under secretaries and deputy secretaries in the HRD Ministry in order to get grant.

"The HECI is not merely an assault on higher education but also an assault on federalism. My first request is you must block the introduction of the bill but even if it's introduced it's not likely to be introduced in this session. Make sure that it goes to the standing committee," he said.

He said that there are recent examples of how the opposition has persuaded the government to not go ahead with some bills. He called HECI a "very poorly drafted bill with evil intentions".

Jha said that he is ready to go the well of the house to oppose the bill to "save the country".

"HECI is actually the bullet train of education. Nobody knows about the kind of passengers that will be boarding the bullet train or how many people will be rendered jobless or how many farmers will lose their land. Similarly, if the HECI comes, we will not able to function and neither will our institutes," he added.

BJP MP Udit Raj urged that teachers and students need to work for mass movements instead of approaching political leaders.

Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Gowda said that the HECI legislation should be discussed at length. He said that role of market is crucial but state should take more responsibility for the institutions of higher education. He also stressed the need to craft an alternative agenda to transform India's education sector for the better.

Trinamool Congress MP Sugata Bose said that students should be allowed to raise demands of freedom and also to make mistakes.

Bose also said that there is a regional bias in selection of "Institutions of Eminence". He questioned why there is not even a single central university that has been recognised as an Institution of Eminence.

CPI (M) leaders Nilotpal Basu and Md Salim insisted that state should invest more in higher education instead of withdrawing as there is a wide gap that exists in getting access to education.

CPI leader D Raja also raised concerns about questions of equality in higher education.

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry had announced its decision to replace the UGC with the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) by repealing the UGC Act, 1951.

According to the draft bill, the new commission will solely focus on academic matters and monetary grants would be under the purview of the ministry.

According to the HRD Ministry, less government and more governance, separation of grant-related functions, end of the inspection raj, focus on academic quality, powers to enforce compliance with the academic quality standards and to order closure of sub-standard and bogus institutions are some of the highlights of the proposed legislation.

The government was earlier mulling to have a single regulator for technical education, national council teachers training and UGC.

However, it has been decided to strengthen the higher education regulator as it was felt that the UGC remained preoccupied with disbursing funds to institutes and was unable to concentrate on other key areas such as mentoring the institutes, focussing on research to be undertaken, etc.