New Delhi: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has called the University Grants Commission’s anti-discrimination regulations “unbalanced” and urged the Union government to ensure that any changes or decisions must maintain fairness and social harmony. RSS national publicity chief, Sunil Ambekar, made the remarks while addressing a press conference in Indore on Saturday, ahead of the RSS’ 3-day Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal meeting. The meeting will continue on November 2 and will be attended by 408 functionaries, including RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. “The RSS has made its position clear that the circular was unbalanced. The authorities’ attention was drawn towards it, and the government also took note. The court has put the regulations on hold, and the matter is sub judice. We believe that whatever decision is taken going forward must be balanced. The government must ensure this, and the matter should also be pursued in the same direction before the court. We should keep our society strong. If we stay together, I feel that solutions to such problems will also emerge,” Ambekar said.The remarks come as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) heads towards assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh in 2027. These regulations had become a major political flashpoint before the Supreme Court stayed them in January this year. In February, Ambekar had said the RSS would do whatever is needed to maintain unity. Later in September, Bhagwat reportedly told a Jain monk in Bhilwara in a closed-door meeting that the rules would not become law, as reported by the Free Press Journal. UGC guidelinesThe UGC (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, were notified on January 13. The regulations came after a public interest litigation was filed in the Supreme Court in 2019 by Radhika Vemula and Abeda Salim Tadvi, the mothers of Rohith Vemula and Payal Tadvi respectively. Both Rohith and Payal died by suicide after facing caste-based discrimination at their universities. The regulations require every higher education institution to set up an equity committee to examine discrimination complaints, with members from the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Caste communities, persons with disabilities and women. They replaced the 2012 regulations, which were largely advisory. Petitioners argued that the guidelines ‘discriminate’ against the ‘general classes’, prompting protests in Delhi, Jaipur, Patna, Indore, Ranchi and Chandigarh. More than a dozen local BJP leaders in Uttar Pradesh had resigned in protest of the guidelines. Among them was Bareilly city magistrate Alankar Agnihotri, The Wire has previously reported. On August 20, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court that the regulations were “under reconsideration”. The court adjourned the hearing by four weeks and asked the UGC to file its response. Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said that it was too early to frame questions of law and that the matter could be taken up again after the reconsideration process was complete. The Union government has not explained what changes it is considering.On January 29, a bench comprising CJI Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi kept the regulations in abeyance, calling them prima facie vague and capable of misuse. It directed that the 2012 regulations continue under Article 142 in the interim.