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Sibal left alone on education bill
Despite repeated steps, Union HRD minister Kabil Sibal’s efforts to pass his ambitious National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for higher educational institutions bill has failed to cut ice with the Opposition, or even allies.
Despite repeated steps, Union HRD minister Kabil Sibal’s efforts to pass his ambitious National Accreditation Regulatory Authority for higher educational institutions bill has failed to cut ice with the Opposition, or even allies.
The Opposition has already caused many of his education-related bills to get stalled during the last few sessions.
The latest blow came at a special meeting convened by Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar on Monday to end the logjam over the bill.
Sibal seemed to be under the impression that he enjoys support of chief ministers like Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal) and Naveen Patnaik (Odisha)-only to be refuted by the respective parties within minutes.
When Sibal said in the meeting that he has already spoken to the CMs, Bhartruhari Mahtab, BJD’s chief whip in Lok Sabha, protested and said his boss Patnaik has not given any instruction to support the bill. Trinamool’s chief whip Kalyan Banerjee echoed a similar note.
“I was so taken aback that I called my chief minister. Naveenbabu told me that last time he spoke to Sibal was almost a year ago,” Mahtab told Hindustan Times. Kumar has called another meeting on August 21 to discuss the education bill.
