Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has sharply criticised the Modi government's approach to education, accusing it of promoting centralisation, commercialisation, and communalisation.
In her article titled "The '3Cs' that haunt Indian education today" published in The Hindu, Gandhi described the government's policies as detrimental to the nation's public education system.
According to Gandhi, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, while appearing promising on the surface, conceals a government that is indifferent to the education of India's youth. She argued that the administration’s focus has been on consolidating power at the central level, outsourcing education to the private sector, and promoting ideological biases within curricula.
“The Union Government's record over the past decade reveals an obsession with three core agenda items: centralisation of power, commercialisation through private investment, and communalisation of textbooks and institutions,” Gandhi stated.
She criticised the government’s tendency towards “unchecked centraliasation,” highlighting that the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) has not convened since September 2019. Despite pushing for significant changes through NEP 2020, Gandhi alleged that the government has consistently excluded state governments from discussions about policy implementation.
According to her, the government’s disregard for state involvement is especially troubling given education is a Concurrent List subject under the Indian Constitution. “The lack of dialogue is accompanied by a ‘bullying tendency,’” Gandhi remarked, accusing the administration of coercing states into implementing schemes like PM-SHRI by leveraging grants under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
Gandhi also took aim at the draft University Grants Commission (UGC) guidelines of 2025, describing them as “draconian” for excluding state governments from the process of appointing Vice-Chancellors in universities that they operate and fund. She argued that the Union government, through governors acting as chancellors, has monopolised control over these appointments.
“This is a backdoor attempt to convert a subject from the Concurrent List into the exclusive domain of the Union government. It represents a grave threat to federalism,” she asserted.
On commercialisation, Gandhi accused the Modi administration of systematically dismantling public education, forcing economically disadvantaged students toward an expensive and poorly regulated private education sector. She pointed to the introduction of the Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) as a replacement for the University Grants Commission’s previous grant system, emphasising its negative impact on accessibility.
Gandhi further accused the government of communalising education by reshaping curricula to align with the ideological vision of the RSS and the BJP.
She claimed that crucial historical content, including Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination and Mughal India, has been removed from textbooks. Additionally, the Preamble to the Indian Constitution was allegedly excluded until public outrage forced its reinstatement.
The Congress leader also criticised the recruitment process in universities, alleging that leadership positions are increasingly reserved for ideologically aligned individuals with subpar academic credentials. “The last decade has seen education systems purged of the spirit of public service, with policies now indifferent to issues of accessibility and quality,” Gandhi wrote.