Congress flays Common Universities Act

The Congress has got an issue for Lok Sabha elections in the form of the Common Universities Act. The party says that the Act grabs the autonomy of the city-based Maharaja Sayajirao University.

After the announcement of Satyajit Gaekwad's name for the Lok Sabha seat from the city, Congress was in search of a sensitive issue which can become a poll issue and can brighten the winning chances of Gaekwad, who had lost to BJP nominee Jayaben Thakar by a narrow margin of about 6,000 votes.

Congress got the chance to make the Common Universities Act a poll issue when the universities vice-chancellors, including MS University, were sent a mail by AK Singh, vice-chancellor of Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University to discuss about the issues of nominating a search committee member for selecting vice-chancellor for the university and discussing other issues including the Common University Act at today's meeting of the vice-chancellors in Ahmedabad.

According to Suresh Patel, city unit president for Congress, the Act is designed to grab the autonomy of M S University, which is the only world famous university located in the city.

MS University is the only English-medium university in the state where Maharshi Aurbindo, Ambedkar, famous writer Kanaiyalal Munshi, late Gujarat chief ministers- Jivraj Mehta and Chimanbhai Patel- and others had studied.