File photo: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
Credit: PTI photo
New Delhi: Amid growing protest over the recently notified University Grants Commission Regulations to tackle caste-based discrimination on campuses, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan assured the students no one will be allowed to “misuse” the rules to harass in the name of “discrimination”.
“I want to assure with all humility that there will be no harassment. No one will be permitted to misuse the rules in the name of discrimination. In the name of discrimination, nobody will have the right to misuse the regulations, the UGC, the Union government or State governments. There will be responsibility,” Pradhan said while speaking to reporters at Didwana in Rajasthan.
He said that the rules are well within the ambit of the Constitution. “This (the notification of the Rules) has been done under the supervision of the Supreme Court,” he added.
The anti-discrimination rules, which were notified by the ministry on January 13, have led to protests in various parts of the country. On Tuesday, over 100 students braved the rain to stage a protest outside the UGC headquarters. The students termed the rules “draconian”. On social media, several students have joined in the protests, asking others that they not vote for the BJP government once again. A UP bureaucrat posted in Bareilly who had gone public with his opposition to the UGC guidelines was on Tuesday suspended by the state government.
While the protests have been spearheaded by upper caste groups, left wing student groups including the All India Students’ Association (AISA) welcomed it.
The Rules mandate the the formation of ‘Equity Committees’ in all higher education institutions to address and prevent discrimination on campuses, and college and university campuses have been asked to establish an Equal Opportunity Centre to oversee the implementation of the policies in addition to operating an ‘Equity Helpline’.
Consequently, a please has been filed in the Supreme Court urging for the rollback for the rules. The rules were mandated by a Supreme Court directive from September while hearing a plea by the mothers of Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadvi, both students who died by suicide facing discrimination. The apex court asked the UGC to consider a 10-point framework on caste bias in higher education, and had set a timeline of 8 weeks. The applicants had questioned the implementation of 2012 UGC regulations.