After selfie points, UGC issues diktat on PM Narendra Modi’s speech
Basant Kumar Mohanty | 11 December 2023 | The Telegraph
The University Grants Commission has asked universities to encourage their students and faculty members to listen to a speech by Narendra Modi on Monday, a week after directing all varsities to set up selfie points with pictures of the Prime Minister.
Modi will speak via videoconferencing at the “Viksit Bharat@2047: Voice of Youth” consultation programme. The universities have been asked to make arrangements for viewing the event from their campuses.
Some academics and MPs criticised the higher education regulator’s move as the promotion of government propaganda on campuses.
“You are requested to make the necessary arrangements to view the live webcast of the programme in your esteemed institution,” a letter to all the country’s universities from UGC secretary Manish Joshi says.
“You are also requested to share the webcast link with all students and faculty members and encourage them to watch the live webcast of this momentous occasion. Your active participation and engagement are vital to the success of this event.”
The letter mentions the link — pmindiawebcast.nic.in — to the planned webcast.
DMK parliamentarian P. Wilson said the UGC directives to universities to set up selfie points and ask students to watch the Prime Minister’s speech amounted to pushing government propaganda.
“The UGC’s function, under the UGC Act, is to ensure the standards of higher education, for which it disburses grants. It has no authority to ask institutions to do anything outside this area,” Wilson said.