Centre’s PU pause half step back, full of confusion: Ex-MP Bansal

The Centre’s decision to put on hold the Panjab University (PU) overhaul has failed to impress former Union Railways Minister and ex-Congress MP Pawan Kumar Bansal, who says the move “means nothing” unless the government withdraws the controversial notification entirely.

Speaking exclusively to The Tribune on Wednesday, Bansal said, “This is again misleading. Either the overhaul notification should have been completely withdrawn or it’s of no use. Practically, the overhaul was already on hold till the new structure was formed — which never happened.”

The Tribune was the first to break the story on Saturday, revealing how the Union Government, through an executive notification issued under the Punjab Reorganisation Act, 1966, had overhauled the university’s century-old governance system, abolishing Senate elections, shrinking its membership from 90 to 31 and converting the Syndicate into a fully nominated body.

Four days later, amid a fierce political storm, the Centre issued two new notifications — rescinding the October 30 order and reissuing another that deferred the implementation “to a date as appointed by the Central Government”.

Bansal, who had been a member of the PU Senate and Syndicate, secretary of PU Campus Students’ Council and member of the Joint Consultative Machinery for employee-university relations, said the Centre’s rollback was “a half step back that achieves nothing”. He said, “This isn’t reform — it’s regression, and now confusion. The Centre has only postponed controversy, not resolved it.”

Calling the entire exercise “an insidious attempt to de-democratise higher education and tighten ideological control”, Bansal reiterated that replacing elected bodies with nominated ones would destroy one of India’s oldest democratic traditions in university governance. “For decades, the PU stood as a symbol of participatory decision-making and academic autonomy. This amendment wipes away that spirit of inclusion and replaces it with bureaucratic centralisation, threatening the university’s freedom of thought and liberal ethos,” he said.

The former minister maintained that the Centre’s move is constitutionally untenable. “The Punjab University Act, 1947, is a state law. Any amendment must be made through the Punjab Legislative Assembly — not by invoking executive powers under Section 72 of the Punjab Reorganisation Act,” he explained. “This not only violates legislative competence but also deprives Punjab of its rightful stake in the university. It’s a clear encroachment on the federal spirit.”

Bansal, however, conceded that the PU’s governance system had its flaws. “The Senate had grown chaotic, factional, and often unproductive. But the cure for an imperfect democracy is not autocracy,” he said. “Reason of democracy should prevail over sound of democracy, but silencing that sound altogether robs democracy of its meaning.”

According to him, true reform should have strengthened, not silenced, democratic representation. “The real reform could have included halving the Chancellor’s nominations, including directors of IITs and IIMs by rotation, converting the Graduate Constituency into one of PhD holders elected under a first-past-the-post system and giving ex-officio seats to the Chandigarh MP, PU Teachers’ Association president, and PU Students’ Council president. That would have preserved inclusivity and accountability,” he elaborated.

Bansal dismissed the inclusion of high constitutional dignitaries in the new Syndicate as “tokenism”. “It’s cosmetic. It lends legitimacy on paper, not in practice. It’s futile to expect the Chief Minister or Chief Justice to attend Syndicate meetings chaired by the Vice Chancellor,” he said. “The result will be a pliant, bureaucratised structure that suppresses debate rather than encouraging it.”

Reiterating his demand for complete withdrawal of the notification, Bansal urged the Centre to engage in meaningful consultations with teachers, students, alumni, and the Punjab Government before taking any fresh step. “The government should rescind the notification fully, hold genuine stakeholder consultations, and, if necessary, bring an amendment to the PU Act through the Punjab Assembly,” he said.

“The university needed repair, not replacement. By silencing representative voices, the Centre has weakened one of India’s oldest academic institutions. Reform can’t come at the cost of democracy,” Bansal concluded.