NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) on Wednesday urged the University Grants Commission (UGC) to urgently rectify the “serious inadequacies” in its Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions Regulations, 2026. The party further appealed to students and stakeholders with educational institutions to maintain unity stating that only through collective effort can caste discrimination be effectively fought.
Through a statement issued by the Polit Bureau of CPM, the party said that 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, it stated.
“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 statement read.
Expressing concern over the regulations, the CPM said that they fail to define discrimination in a comprehensive manner and 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 party also stated.
“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,” the Polit Bureau’s statement also said.
The party further said that 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 CPM also attacked the Centre stating that 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,” its statement also said.
The Left party said that the ideological fountainhead of BJP, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliate organizations 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 party demanded.