Terming as “unconstitutional” and “unilateral” the new regulations of the University Grants Commission (UGC), Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Tuesday charged that this was an authoritarian move of the Modi government.

With the DMK government of Stalin and Governor R N Ravi at loggerheads over appointment of vice-chancellors, leaving many varsities headless, this new regulation has angered the chief minister.

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The new regulations were released by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.

“Education is a subject under the Concurrent List in our Constitution, and hence we consider the move of the UGC to issue this notification unilaterally as unconstitutional. This overreach is unacceptable and Tamil Nadu will fight it legally and politically,” he wrote on his ‘X’ handle.

In the long post, he made it clear that the new regulations which grant extensive powers and broader control over appointment of VCs and allowing non- academics to occupy these posts are a direct assault on federalism and state rights. In his view, this is a blatant authoritarian move by the Union BJP government to centralise power and undermine democratically elected state governments.

“Education must remain in the hands of those chosen by the people, not dictated by Governors acting at the BJP government’s behest,” he said adding, “Tamil Nadu, which leads the nation with the highest number of top ranking HEIs, will not stay silent as our institutions are stripped of autonomy.”

In the case of Tamil Nadu, the DMK government and Raj Bhavan did not see eye to eye even in the constitution of search panels for selecting VCs for varsities, where the incumbents’ tenure had expired.

As per the statutes, in the state-run universities, a search panel has only three- members viz., nominees of the syndicate, state government and of the Governor-Chancellor. But, Ravi is insisting upon including a nominee of the UGC chairman. Many bills replacing the Governor as chancellor with the chief minister have been pending for more than two years.