Chennai, Oct 26 (IANS) PMK leader Dr Anbumani Ramadoss hailed the Stalin government’s decision to withdraw the controversial Tamil Nadu Private Universities (Amendment) Bill, calling it a “victory for social justice” and a “people’s movement against the commercialisation of education”.

In a strongly worded statement, Anbumani said the DMK government was forced to retract the Bill after widespread opposition from academics, social justice activists, professors’ associations, and political parties.

“The DMK government, which stood against social justice, has now bowed before it,” he said.

The Bill, tabled in the Assembly on October 15, sought to allow private self-financing and government-aided colleges to convert into private universities.

Anbumani said the proposal would have caused “irreparable damage” to the education system and social equity in Tamil Nadu.

“On October 16, I had released a detailed statement explaining how the amendment would commercialise education, destroy social justice, and deny higher education to the poor,” he said, adding that despite objections, the government passed the Bill hastily on October 17 through a voice vote without discussion.

Anbumani alleged that the Bill was intended to serve the interests of wealthy private institutions. “If there had been no opposition, the DMK government would have converted all private colleges into universities and allowed them to charge exorbitant fees,” he charged.

He warned that the amendment would have led to the scrapping of reservations in engineering, arts, and science courses (except medicine), discontinuation of government aid to aided colleges, steep hikes in tuition fees, and withdrawal of salaries and benefits to staff in aided institutions.

“This would have transformed colleges into corporate entities and deprived lakhs of poor students of affordable education,” he said.

The PMK leader accused the DMK government of trying to mislead the public even while backtracking.

“The government is now pretending that the Bill was introduced with good intentions, but people can clearly see through its deceit,” he said.

Anbumani recalled that the DMK had earlier brought several laws against social justice and environmental protection, including the 2023 Tamil Nadu Land Consolidation (Special Schemes) Act.

“The withdrawal of this Bill is an admission of guilt. The people of Tamil Nadu will not forgive such betrayals and will deliver their verdict in the next Assembly election,” he asserted.

–IANS

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