Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan has slammed Congress MP Rahul Gandhi over the latter’s questions regarding the handling of reserved faculty positions in central educational institutions.
Taking to X on Tuesday, Pradhan said, “Rahul Gandhi and the entire Congress party today have become the biggest brand ambassadors of lies and deceit in the country.” He accused Congress of historically neglecting SC, ST, and OBC communities, adding, “The Congress royal family has always cheated SC, ST and OBC, but the prince does not know his own party’s anti-Dalit and anti-backward history.”
Addressing the data on vacant posts, Pradhan said, “When the UPA government left office in 2014, central universities had 57% SC, 63% ST, and 60% OBC faculty posts vacant. Since then, the Modi government has been working to fill these positions.” He noted, “The number of teaching posts increased from 16,217 in 2014 to 18,940 under the Modi government.”
He also shared specific faculty recruitment numbers. “Between 2004 and 2014, IITs had only 83 SC, 14 ST and 166 OBC faculty appointments. NITs had 261 SC, 72 ST and 334 OBC faculty members during this period.” Contrasting this, he said, “From 2014 to 2024, IITs hired 398 SC, 99 ST and 746 OBC faculty, while NITs appointed 929 SC, 265 ST and 1,510 OBC teachers.”
Further, Pradhan defended changes in recruitment policies by saying, “The Modi government removed the PhD requirement for Assistant Professor posts to increase opportunities.” On the ‘Not Found Suitable’ (NFS) classification, which Rahul Gandhi had criticized as a tool to deny reserved category candidates their rightful positions, Pradhan said, “The NFS tag was a legacy of Congress rule that allowed denial of SC, ST and OBC rights.”
{{/usCountry}}Further, Pradhan defended changes in recruitment policies by saying, “The Modi government removed the PhD requirement for Assistant Professor posts to increase opportunities.” On the ‘Not Found Suitable’ (NFS) classification, which Rahul Gandhi had criticized as a tool to deny reserved category candidates their rightful positions, Pradhan said, “The NFS tag was a legacy of Congress rule that allowed denial of SC, ST and OBC rights.”
{{/usCountry}}“To address this injustice, the Modi government introduced The Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teacher’s Cadre) Act, 2019, which ended the practice of filling reserved posts with non-reserved candidates.” He emphasised, “Now, reserved posts cannot be filled by any other category.”
Gandhi had claimed that over 60% of reserved professor posts in Delhi University remain vacant due to deliberate exclusion. To that, Pradhan said, “Vacancies still exist because of long-standing systemic issues inherited from Congress regimes, but the government is continuously filling these posts.”
Gandhi also accused the government of undermining social justice through the NFS label. “NFS is an attack on the Constitution. NFS is betrayal of social justice.” He added, “Education is the greatest weapon for equality, as Babasaheb said, but the Modi government is dulling this weapon,” the Congress MP said.
“We will stand with DUSU students and fight every anti-reservation move by BJP and RSS with the strength of the Constitution,” he said.
Pradhan also accused Congress of politicising Ambedkar’s name, and said, “Those who claim to speak for Babasaheb Ambedkar but continue to support Congress are attacking the Constitution.”