General Secretary State Platform for Common School System – Tamil Nadu PB Prince Gajendra Babu. | Photo credit: Siva Saravanan. WITH
The State Platform for Common School System – Tamil Nadu (SPCSS-TN) has written to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC), set up to examine the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan (VBSA) Bill, 2025, describing the bill as unconstitutional and demanding its withdrawal.
The bill, as mentioned in the letter, provided for the establishment of Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan along with three councils – Viksit Bharat Shiksha Viniyaman Parishad (Regulatory Council), Viksit Bharat Gunvatta Parishad (Accreditation Council) and Viksit Bharat Shiksha Manak Parishad (Standards Council).
“In effect, the Coordination and Standardization Bill not only enables the Union Government to regulate universities but also facilitates the abolition of universities,” the letter said. “The Bill is a colorful exercise of power; it is hidden under Entry 66 of List 1 (Seventh Schedule of the Constitution) to enforce legislation which Parliament has no power to enact, in accordance with Entry 32 of List II and Entry 44 of List I,” the letter further stated.
State universities and colleges, especially in states like Tamil Nadu, were established to achieve the goal of social justice. The state government’s reservation policy, highly subsidized fees and special provision for women education helped the state to universalize higher education.
The letter argued that the National Education Policy 2020 did not recognize the role of state universities in India’s development and the VBSA Bill 2025 assumed that only a centralized regulatory board would be able to ensure high standards of higher education. On the contrary, centralization of regulation and uniform standardization and accreditation process would only weaken state universities and result in privatization of education, further stated the letter signed by PB Prince Gajendra Babu, General Secretary of SPCSS-TN.
While the NEP 2020 clearly indicated that the government would not fully fund education, the VBSA Act 2025 vested regulatory powers in the union government, leaving financial responsibility to state governments. Without adequate funding, state government universities would not be able to compete with private and foreign universities, which can recoup costs and repatriate their surpluses, the paper said.
He called the bill “India’s version of McCarthyism” and argued that outcome-based education, vocational skills in completing a course of study and an emphasis on Indian knowledge systems were aimed at creating a cult that would remain subservient to those in power.
Published – 10 May 2026 0:44 IST
