Congress' Digvijaya Singh calls for resolution of issues in new UGC guidelines

New Delhi [India], January 28 (ANI): Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Wednesday highlighted concerns over the new University Grants Commission's (UGC) guidelines, saying the government and the UGC need to resolve issues regarding caste-based discriminations in higher education.
In a post shared on X, Singh said, "The mothers of Payal Tadvi and Rohith Vemula - and the prompting of the Supreme Court - Modi Government and the UGC came with draft UGC Equity Regulations in February 2025."
"In December 2025, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education issued a report that, among other things, reviewed the UGC's draft Equity Regulations. The report, was unanimously adopted by the committee and made some recommendations to strengthen the UGC's draft Equity Regulations," he added.
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Singh elaborated on the key recommendations, saying, "The draft Regulations must explicitly include harassment of students and other stakeholders from the Other Backward Classes (OBCs)... the draft regulations must explicitly include disability as an axis of discrimination... the Equity Committee envisioned by the draft Regulations has provisions for only one mandatory woman member and one mandatory member each from the SC and ST communities... this should be raised to correspond with the provision of 50% reservations for SCs, STs, and OBCs in faculty and student positions."
He further said, "The draft Regulations, like the 2012 Regulations, must positively identify instances of discrimination. Without such detail, it will be left to the discretion of the institute to decide whether a complaint is genuine or false. Accordingly, the Regulations must explicitly include a comprehensive list of discriminatory practices."
Singh noted that the UGC accepted only some of the Committee's recommendations, adding, "In January 2026, the UGC released its final Equity Regulations, which accepted the Committee's recommendations on A, B, and E. It, however, did not accept the Parliamentary Committee's recommendation on C and D."
He criticised the final rules, stating, "The UGC's final Regulations also got rid of a separate provision that penalised students for lodging false cases of discrimination... the protests against the Regulations are by General category students and largely concentrated on two issues - removal of provisions penalising students for lodging false cases, and the exclusion of General category students as potential victims of caste discrimination."
Digvijaya Singh said, "Clarifying what acts and instances count as discrimination would not just strengthen protections for students, but also dilute the possibility of the regulations being misused as an instrument to lodge fake cases... it is now entirely up to the UGC and the Ministry of Education to bring resolution to this issue."
This came after new rules notified by the UGC on January 13, which update its 2012 regulations on the same subject, have sparked widespread criticism from general category students, who argue that the framework could lead to discrimination against them.
The new regulations, introduced to curb caste-based discrimination in colleges and universities, require institutions to establish special committees and helplines to address complaints, especially from SC, ST, and OBC students.
Meanwhile, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday sought to allay concerns over the new UGC regulations, assuring that the law would not be misused and that there would be no discrimination in its implementation. (ANI)