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Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav joined the protest against the UGC’s draft regulations, condemning it as an attack on education and a conspiracy to favor industrialists.
Akhilesh and Rahul joins DMK students wing protest in Delhi against UGC’s draft regulations. (Image: PTI)
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav joined DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi on Wednesday, as the student wing of her party staged a protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar against the UGC’s draft regulations.
While addressing the DMK student wing’s protest against the University Grants Commission (UGC) draft rules, Rahul said, “I have been saying this now for sometime that the aim of the RSS is the eradication of all other histories, all other cultures all other traditions in this country. That is their starting point and is what they want to achieve. They attacked the Constitution because they want to impose one idea which is their idea, one history, one tradition, one language in this country and this attempt that they are doing with the education system of the different states… this is just another attempt to push their agenda.”
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, speaking in support of the protest, also condemned the New Education Policy introduced by the Centre. He said, “The Samajwadi Party fully supports this protest against the New Education Policy being introduced by the central government. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the former Prime Minister, once said that if you keep supporting industrialists, there will come a day when you become their servants. This New Education Policy is a conspiracy to hand over universities to industrialists. They aim to strip state governments of their powers and turn politicians into servants of industrialists. We will never support this policy.”
He further added, “They want to seize all the powers of the state governments. They want to make politicians servants of industrialists. We can never support the New Education Policy. I stand with all the students here and with the decision you have made. I am against the NEP. I am against the BJP.”
The protest came a month after the Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a resolution on January 9, demanding that the Centre immediately withdraw the regulations. All parties, except the BJP, supported the resolution, including NDA ally Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) and Tamil Nadu’s main opposition, AIADMK.
Chief Minister MK Stalin had said at the time, “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.” On January 20, Stalin wrote to Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan urging the withdrawal of the draft UGC rules and, in a separate letter, urged his counterparts in non-BJP ruled states to pass resolutions against the Centre’s move.
