New Delhi: Criticism against the recently passed Gujarat Public Universities Bill has been growing, with Opposition Congress accusing the state government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of killing the autonomy of universities and transferring the powers to administer them to the state government.

The Gujarat Assembly passed the controversial Bill on September 16, bringing 11 public universities in the state under the ambit of the said Bill and unifying different laws that governed the functioning of different universities.

The controversy stems from the sweeping changes the Bill wants to bring in. It intends to replace the existing senates and syndicates in the universities with a new system in place called the 'board of management', which will be given full executive control and be the final decision-making authority of a university to decide the policy course as well as to carry out all administrative work. This essentially means that there would not be any elections or any political activity by the student wings of any political party.

According to The Hindu, the opposition Congress is of the view that the law would kill the autonomy of the public universities, for the stringent provisions in the Bill would infringe on the autonomy of the universities and are detrimental to academic freedom and internal functioning of the varsities.

The leader of the Congress legislature party, Amit Chavda, said that the Bill was aimed at “sarkarikaran (governmentisation) of education", the newspaper reported. He also alleged that the Bill is actually meant to encourage privitisation of education in the state at the cost of undermining public universities. "The Bill will end the academic and financial autonomy of 11 universities," he said.

The Congress particularly hit out at the government's decision to do away with the system of senates and syndicate bodies, which take up students' issues. They say it will, in effect, enable a culture where members close to the government or ruling party are appointed to administrative bodies in universities.

However, state higher education minister, Rushikesh Patel, called the Bill a "milestone". Arguing on behalf of the government, he said the law would provide for "sound finance control, better-quality higher education and measures to create excellent quality standards in the face of global competition". He said the law will equip the universities to cope with the requirements of the 21st century.

Among other highlights of the Bill is that it restricts the tenure of vice-chancellors to five years at a given university. If the person concerned is found "competent", s/he can be appointed in the same position at another university for another five years. The government reserves the right to remove a vice-chancellor from office if they are found to have an association with a political party or organisation. Again, it is for the government to decide whether a certain organisation is "political" in nature.

The state government will also wield powers to draw up eligibility criteria for members to be appointed to academic councils, exercised through the 'board of management' it intends to set up.

Under the new law, universities will have to enact "model statues", provided by the state government. Any changes to them will have to be made upon the approval of the government. The government would be fully empowered to draw up the same/uniform statutes for all universities.

On the other hand, the Bill does not permit a university to debar a teaching or non-teaching staff member if s/he becomes a member of a legislative assembly or parliament, which has been the case thus far. Instead, the period they serve as legislators would be treated as a period of leave without pay.

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