[Marxistindia] On the UGC Promotion of Equity Regulations, 2026

[news from the cpi(m)]

January 28, 2026

 

Press Statement

 

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the
following statement:

 

On the UGC Promotion of Equity Regulations, 2026

 

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) urges the
University Grants Commission (UGC) to urgently rectify the serious
inadequacies in its Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions
Regulations, 2026.

 

The Regulations mandate all UGC-affiliated higher education institutions to
constitute an "Equity Committee" to address discrimination. While the
formation of such a committee is a positive step, its implementation must be
closely monitored. These Regulations flow from Article 14 of the
Constitution and are a response to Supreme Court observations, as were the
2012 Regulations, and must therefore be enforced in both letter and spirit.

 

However, the Regulations are confined only to universities and their
affiliated colleges and are not enforceable in central institutions such as
IITs, IIMs, AIIMS, and other similar bodies. It is imperative that the
government address this serious lacuna and extend effective equity
mechanisms to these institutions as well.

 

The Regulations also fail to define discrimination in a comprehensive
manner. They appear to focus primarily on eliminating the perception of
discrimination, thereby obscuring the lived realities within higher
education institutions. The framework must be strengthened to explicitly
acknowledge, define, identify, and eliminate all forms of discrimination
faced by students and faculty.

 

The constitution of the Equity Committee should not be left to the whims and
fancies of the head of the institution. Instead, it must be carried out
through democratically elected representatives of students, faculty, and
non-teaching staff to ensure credibility and accountability.

 

Further, the UGC has appropriated to itself the authority to appoint an
ombudsperson to adjudicate appeals against decisions of the Equity
Committee. Given that a substantial number of universities are established
under Acts of state legislatures, the power to appoint an ombudsperson
should rest with the respective state governments, in keeping with the
federal principles enshrined in the Constitution.

 

The BJP-led union government has increasingly communalised education by
introducing retrograde and unscientific elements into academic curricula.
The inclusion of texts such as the Manusmriti - which legitimises caste
discrimination and glorifies a varna-based, oppressive, and exploitative
social order - will only reinforce prejudices based on caste and gender. The
government must immediately remove such obscurantist texts from the syllabi.

 

The RSS and its affiliate organisations are exploiting the notification of
these Regulations to foment caste divisions within educational institutions.
The union government must take immediate steps to curb such attempts and act
firmly against them.

 

The CPI(M) appeals to students and all those associated with educational
institutions to maintain unity, as only through collective effort can caste
discrimination be effectively fought.

 

 

Muralidharan

For CPI(M) Central Committee Office

 

 

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