Rahul Gandhi's Post After Outcry Over Education Panel UGC's Draft Rules

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has 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". The Centre and University Grants Commission (UGC), which oversees educational institutions, have already clarified that there is no such plan after draft guidelines issued by the education panel sparked a row.

In a post on X, the Congress leader said 3,000 out of 7,000 reserved posts in 45 central universities are vacant. "The RSS-BJP have already spoken about reviewing reservation, They now want to snatch the jobs of these (backward) sections in higher education institutions," he alleged.

The move, the Congress MP, alleged is an attempt to murder the dreams of those struggling for social justice. "This is BJP's character and the difference between symbolic justice and real justice. The Congress will never let this happen. We will continue to fight for social justice and will ensure that eligible candidates fill up these vacant positions," Mr Gandhi added.

According to the draft guidelines, a "reserved vacancy may be declared unreserved by following the procedure of de-reservation where after, it can be filled as an unreserved vacancy".

"There is a general ban on de-reservation of reserved vacancies in case of direct recruitment. However, in rare and exceptional cases when a vacancy in a Group A service cannot be allowed to remain vacant in public interest, the University concerned may prepare a proposal for de-reservation of the vacancy giving the following information: 'The proposal will be required to list - efforts made to fill up the post; reasons why it cannot be allowed to remain vacant and justification for de-reservation," the draft guidelines stated, detailing the process for filling up such a post.

The draft guidelines sparked a huge row, drawing strong criticism from the main Opposition Congress. Earlier, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had accused the BJP of a conspiracy to end reservation.

Amid the outcry, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan assured that "not a single reserved post will be de-reserved". "There is no scope for ambiguity after the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers' Cadre) Act, 2019," he told news agency PTI.

The UGC, too, came out with a clarification. "This is to clarify that there has been no de-reservation of reserved category positions in Central Educational Institutions (CEI) in the past and there is going to be no such de-reservation. It is important for all HEIs (higher education institutions) to ensure that all backlog positions in reserved category are filled up through concerted efforts," a statement quoting UGC chairman M Jagadesh Kumar was posted by the panel's official handle on X.