Karunanidhi Protests Sibal’s Approach of No Quota in New Central Universities
Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, who announced that the 15 new Central Universities that were started in 2009 would be aggrandized as ‘benchmarks of excellence’ and recruit students on the basis of an All India exam, has come in for protest from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.
Karunanidhi has demanded that in Tamil Nadu’s new Central University, 50 per cent seats should be reserved for rural students. However, Sibal is reported to have responded in negative to this when he visited Chennai lately. Even in Rajya Sabha on Monday, DMK MPs brought it up during the discussion on the Amendment to the Central Universities Bill 2009.
“Any reservation will dilute the very concept of merit. The new Central Universities are planned as benchmarks of excellence, centres of research and intellectual wealth creation. They will be research centric, come with semester system, and recruit the best through an All-India entrance exam. We cannot dilute merit by reservation,” Sibal said in the Rajya Sabha.
He made the statement when he was responding to DMK MP Vasanthi Stanley’s who sought to remind the Minister about Karunanidhi’s request for 50 per cent reservation during the discussion.
