Bengaluru: Senior Congress Leader and former Karnataka CM Siddharamaiah said the decision of the state Government to implement the New Education Policy (NEP) from the current academic year is undemocratic and dictatorial.

“It is a dictatorial decision. The NEP has been implemented without any discussion. It is against the spirit of federalism. The policy should have been implemented after a detailed discussion,” he said.

Siddharamaiah said that the Government went ahead with the implementation of the policy despite education experts urging it to do so only after discussions with experts, he said. 

This policy, Siddharamaiah said, will give private universities a free hand while reducing government universities into mere certificate-selling shops.

“The Central and the State Governments have gone out of their way to reduce the Government universities into mere certificate-selling shops and encourage private  universities to make more money,” he alleged.

Moreover, education is in the concurrent list as per the Schedule 7 of the Indian Constitution, but the Centre is imposing the policy on the States by denying them their right. Siddharamaiah also claimed that some of the recommendations made in the policy are harmful to the interest of the State.