The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government seems to be in a hurry to completely overhaul the education system, especially higher education. Confirming this, the President’s address to Parliament on 4th June 2009, promises the creation of a National Council for Higher Education — on the basis of a report which was never submitted. And in a pre-meditated way, on the very first day, the government started off the campaign for bringing foreign universities into India at any cost.

This time around, the Congress Party, notwithstanding its UPA allies, has in an open and brazen manner, reverted to its much espoused agenda of bringing in the second wave of liberalisation and privatisation into the country. This is because the Congress, along with its corporate friends, believes that this was ‘stalled’ by the Left during the previous UPA stint. Naturally there seems to be a sense of lost time and urgency implied in rushing to bring in foreign direct investment to various sectors. It was with the same eagerness with which the President’s address dealt with the unbearable urgency of reform in higher education which is in fact another great opportunity for the corporate sector and foreign investors to enter these evergreen grazing pastures of higher education. The first wave of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation was detrimental to the poor, Dalits, tribals and helped only the rich — and was unleashed in India by the very persons who have now for the second time taken over as the prime minister and as the deputy chairman of the planning commission. Under this dispensation, higher education joins the list of businesses that the forces of privatisation and globalisation are ready to capture. The process of silencing the poor has begun. But it is essential to check whether this corporate driven eagerness shown by the Congress Party in higher education passes the tests of access, equity, equal opportunity and inclusiveness.

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