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“The BJP-RSS is continuously attacking higher education in India. Narendra Modi ji, you do blow your own trumpet with ‘Pariksha pe charcha’ and ‘Exam warriors’, but the National Talent Search Examination Scholarship (NTSE) has been discontinued for three years, as revealed by newspapers,” he said in a post in Hindi on X.
This scheme, he claimed, has been running since 1963 and “it should have cost Rs 40 crores but Rs 62 crores have been spent on Modi ji’s PR”.
Kharge also alleged that the University Grant Commission’s draft regulations 2025 give governors extensive control over vice-chancellor appointments and allow non-academics to hold these posts, which is a direct attack on federalism and state rights.
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Earlier, the Congress chief said, the UGC was providing financial aid to universities and the government used to fund UGC. But now, the job of providing financial aid has been usurped by HEFA created by the Modi government – it is a venture between Canara Bank and the Ministry of Education, he said.
This, he said, will not only force colleges and universities to start more self-financed courses but will also increase the financial troubles of SC, ST, OBC and EWS students.
Moreover, this aid is not being given to the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) in the form of government funds but in the form of loans, he claimed.
“The UGC’s budget has been cut by a whopping 61 per cent. Controlling universities, throttling autonomous institutions, imposing RSS’s ‘Manuwadi’ ideology on public education and betraying the youth – this is the education policy of the Modi government,” Kharge alleged in his post.