Rahul Gandhi told a delegation from the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Calcutta, that “RSS is capturing the organisation” through the revised ISI bill.
On Monday, those present at the meeting said that the students of the institute met the leader of the Opposition recently at his office on the Parliament premises to seek his intervention on the revised bill.
Rahul put out a video of his interaction with the students and researchers of the ISI, Calcutta, on his X handle on Sunday.
“When we asked him how the revised ISI bill seeks to undermine the institute’s autonomy, Rahul told us the RSS is capturing our organisation,” said Udvas Das, one of the research scholars of ISI, Calcutta, who was part of the delegation.
During the interaction on December 11, when the students explained to him how the bill drafted by the statistics and programme implementation ministry seeks to control the institute with a board of governors full of members to be nominated by the ministry, Rahul reportedly said this was being done to bring the institute under “bureaucratic” control.
When the students urged him to oppose the bill whenever it was placed in Parliament, Rahul reportedly told them: “We will definitely look into it.”
He also wanted to know from the students about the existing governance structure of the institute, said Das.
The revised Indian Statistical Institute Bill, which was uploaded on the ministry’s website on November 28, says that the board of governors will replace its council and academic council as the final decision-making bodies.
The ministry has sought public opinion on the bill till January 5
Under the existing structure, the council, consisting of the teachers and the employees, is the highest decision-making body on administrative issues and the academic council, consisting of the teachers, is the highest decision-making body on academic issues.
Das, who was part of the six-member delegation, said that although the bill has not been placed in the just-concluded winter session of Parliament, they fear the bill could be tabled in the ensuing budget session in February.
“It was when we told him (Rahul Gandhi) that the ministry, through the bill is trying to centralise control, he referred to the RSS taking control of our organisation. We requested his intervention whenever the bill would be tabled in Parliament,” said Das.
For a bill to be turned into an Act, it has to be endorsed by Parliament.
Metro reported on December 12 that the delegation of students met Rahul.