On Tuesday, the Uttar Pradesh government led by CM Yogi Adityanath has passed a new draft ordinance in a bid to curb anti-national activities on campuses.
The new draft ordinance has been passed by the state government making it mandatory for all existing and new private universities to submit an undertaking they will not allow any anti-national activities on their campuses. The draft also enables all universities to come under one ‘umbrella act’ so as not to allow any separate provisions.
#NewsAlert – ‘The Cabinet has taken a very big decision. The country and the state will not tolerate anti-national activities taking place in educational institutions.’: UP Deputy CM, Keshav Prasad Maurya (@kpmaurya1). | @pranshumisraa with more details. pic.twitter.com/Khf41aEQkW
— News18 (@CNNnews18) June 19, 2019
The draft named as “Uttar Pradesh Private Universities Ordinance, 2019” enables al 27 private universities of the state to come under an umbrella act. Existing universities have a period of one year to adopt all provisions of the proposed law.
In a statement, the government said, “among the requirements, which are required to be fulfilled by the establishing institution, a provision has been made to give an undertaking that their university will not be involved in any anti-national activities and neither will they allow such activity inside their campus or in their name.”
Besides curbing anti-national activities Universities are also required to meet other objectives such as national integration, secularism, social harmony, international goodwill, ethics, as well as attempts to inculcate patriotism.
Reportedly, the new ordinance would also bring about improvements in the education system including regulation of fee structure, uniform academic calendar, publishing admission requirements in public domain and making the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) evaluation mandatory for all private universities.
The cabinet has also approved an endowment fund of Rs 5 crore in order to help students to complete their degree in case the university fails to function in the middle of the session due to any reason.
Strict action would be taken against Universities on complaints of forgery, they may even get de-recognized if it has been found that there is a gross misuse of funds or fraud.
In 2016, students of JNU, Kanhaiya Kumar and Umar Khalid were arrested on charges of sedition for organising an event that commemorated terrorist Afzal Guru. Delhi police special Cell had submitted 1200-page charge-sheet in January this year. In February, a Delhi court came down hard on the Aravind Kejriwal led government for delaying the prosecution.
