NEW DELHI: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday took on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his remark that the new UGC draft was a conspiracy to end the reservation benefit extended to the Scheduled Castes (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other backward Classes (OBC).
Taking to X, formerly Twitter, Pradhan said, “Rahul Gandhi’s politics is completely based on lies. As soon as the truth of one lie is exposed, he takes up another lie. The list of false statements made by him is endless. Now both Rahul Gandhi and the Congress Party are telling a new lie regarding appointment to reserved posts in higher education. But this lie of his has also been exposed on the test of facts.”
Gandhi in his post on X had alleged a conspiracy by RSS-BJP to do away with caste-based reservation in higher education and said the Congress "will never let this happen."
Congress leader in his post said that 3,000 out of 7,000 reserved posts in 45 central universities are vacant.
He said that of this 7.1 per cent is reserved for Dalits, 1.6 per cent for STs, and 4.5 per cent for OBC quotas.
However, Pradhan countered and said, “It is clear from the data that the maximum number of appointments have been made during the Modi government.”
Citing figures, Pradhan said of the total appointments made on 6080 posts, the participation of SC is 14.3 per cent , ST is 7 per cent and OBC is 23.42 per cent.
“Apart from this, the appointment process for the remaining posts under these rules is in progress,” he added.
Pardhan also challenged the Congress MP and asked him to give concrete evidence or to publicly apologize for his lies about the figures he had quoted in his Twitter post.
“Now the truth is out. Clear as glass. Therefore, Congress's intention of sowing lies, cultivating lies, and spreading lies is not going to succeed.”
There was a huge outcry in the country after this paper highlighted that the University Grants Commission (UGC) plans to de-reserve faculty positions in centrally funded universities. The controversy led the UGC to change its stance. The Education Ministry also clarified that all the central universities have been asked to fill up the vacancies strictly as per the 2019 Act.
Pradhan continued that Gandhi was running a "false propaganda” about the appointments. “It’s a complete lie.”
“Congress has an old habit of dividing the society and creating instability by spreading lies. The basic character of Congress is anti-SC-ST-OBC. While in power, Congress has always openly opposed the interests of the deprived society.
“Now when the Modi government is ensuring the participation of the deprived society, the anti-SC-ST-OBC face of the Congress and its leaders has once again come out in the open,” he posted.
The Congress on Monday stepped up its attack on the government and demanded the dismissal of UGC Chairman Prof. M. Jagadesh Kumar over the draft guidelines for “de-reservation” of posts in higher education institutions.
