The Congress on Monday demanded that the government revoke the University Grants Commission's draft guidelines, which suggested that if there were insufficient candidates from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes to fill the reserved seats, the positions could be declared unreserved.
The latest UGC draft, according to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, is a plot to eliminate the reservation benefits that are granted to Other Backward Classes (OBC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Scheduled Castes (SC). “This is an attempt to kill the dreams of those fighting for social justice and to eliminate the participation of the deprived sections,’’ Gandhi wrote in a post on X, the previous Twitter platform. Moreover, the Congress leader said that just 7.1% of the 7,000 reserved positions in 45 central universities were held by Dalits, 1.6% by STs, and 4.5% by OBCs. Of these positions, 3,000 were empty.
The Union education ministry addressed concerns about the draft guidelines on Sunday and made it plain that it would not allow posts to be de-reserved. This is the day when the Congress launched its latest attack over the guidelines. Additionally, UGC Chair M Jagadesh Kumar emphasized that "there is going to be no such de-reservation" and that no posts had been de-reserved as of yet.
The following is stated in the UGC draft "Guidelines for Implementation of the Government of India's Reservation Policy in Higher Education Institutes (HEIs)," which was made available for public comment: "De-reservation of reserved vacancies in case of direct recruitment is generally prohibited." However, the university in question may prepare a proposal for de-reservation of the vacancy in rare and extreme instances when it cannot be permitted to remain vacant in the public interest.
The Chairman of the Congress's Social Committee, Rajesh Lilothia, claimed that as the government was dismantling reservations across the nation, it was also bestowing onto Bihar's socialist leader Karpoori Thakur the nation's highest civilian honor, the Bharat Ratna.
