Rahul, Akhilesh to join DMK's protest against UGC draft rules in Delhi on February 6

Chennai: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav will join the protest organised by Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK in New Delhi on Thursday against the draft UGC rules that effectively give Governors (Chancellors) broader powers in appointing vice-chancellors to state-funded universities.

The protest by the DMK students wing at Jantar Mantar, a few hundred metres away from the Parliament complex, will also witness the participation of representatives of TMC, RJD, CPI, CPI(M), and student organisations of various opposition parties.

“Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav, Manoj Jha (RJD), John Brittas (CPIM), and Thol Thirumavalavan (VCK) are some of the opposition leaders who will participate in the protest,” DMK student wing secretary C V M P Ezhilarasan told reporters in New Delhi.

The protest by the DMK comes a month after the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed an “unanimous” resolution demanding that the Union Government immediately withdraw the regulations, which Chief Minister M K Stalin termed as an attempt to “usurp” state universities which were built using state government’s own funds and economic resources.

“The draft UGC rules are nothing but an attempt by the Union Government to usurp universities that state governments have built using their own resources and economic strength. The rules are against federalism,” Stalin had said.

Stalin also wrote to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan seeking the withdrawal of the notification and asked Chief Ministers of Opposition ruled states to pass resolutions against the rules in their respective assemblies.

The rules envisage allowing people with non-academic background including from the private sector to be chosen for the post, which states fear will embolden the BJP-led Centre to appoint vocal supporters of its ideology who might lack necessary academic and administrative experience.