Not all is well in Amrit Kaal in Uttar Pradesh, especially after the latest guidelines of the University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026, notified on January 13, came out. The guidelines aimed at ending discrimination and making UGC campuses more inclusive for marginalised students, like members of communities in the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, and Economically Weaker Sections lists, along with women and disabled students. But they appear to have ruffled a few feathers. News reports are coming in from the Bharatiya Janata Party’s stronghold, India’s largest state of Uttar Pradesh, that ‘general’ category students, bureaucrats and BJP leaders have joined hands to protest against this guideline. The point of contention is the introduction of a new Equity Committee, along with Equity Squads and Equity Ambassadors, whose mandate it is to safeguard the rights of marginalised groups but ‘general’ category protesters are seeing them as units which have the power to conduct surveillance and monitor any violation in ‘vulnerable spots’ at will and take cognisance of it without due process. Other issues range from there being no provisions against false complaints or interim protections in the rules for the accused until the case is being decided. The committees also do not have representation from the ‘general’ category, and no mention of Muslim minorities.Experts amongst ‘general’ category have also questioned the speedy nature of the process, which demands that the committee meet within 24 hours of the complaint and deliver its report in the next 15 days. Given the heavy teaching and administrative load on professors and teachers, the committee members may not be able to give the due time required to handle such delicate issues in the current form. The particular point of contention is the linking of the Equity Helpline, a 24×7 line to register or report complaints, directly with the police system. Without any internal investigation, or hearing the accused person’s or persons’ version of events, a case registered under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act could go right through. ‘General’ category protestors fear that the guidelines will not account for cases of errors or false complaints or gaps in this mechanism.The guidelines, intended to tackle social discrimination don’t specify anything about the ‘creamy layer’ either. What happens to individuals belonging to the aforementioned demographic? Are they covered in the ambit of these guidelines? UP in uproarSince the announcement of the new guidelines, Uttar Pradesh has been hit with a storm. Politically, as borne out by CSDS data since the 1990s, the BJP banks on the near-total support of ‘upper’ caste groups of Brahmins, Kshtariyas and Vaishyas, but this step has suddenly upset its core support base. Now, Shyam Sundar Tripathi, the district president of the BJP’s Kisan Morcha in Salon (Rae Bareli) issued his resignation through a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling the guidelines “black laws” and claiming that they are “against the children of upper castes”. But it is not only Tripathi, Uttar Pradesh BJP Member of the Legislative Council Devendra Pratap Singh wrote to the UGC saying it should concern itself with protecting those from the Dalit communities and backward classes against discrimination, and not with “making general category students feel unsafe”. Reports indicate that city magistrate Alankar Agnihotri from Bareilly has resigned in protest, citing the unfair treatment of the guidelines on ‘upper-caste’ students. BJP Yuva Morcha vice-president Raju Pandit also resigned in protest against guidelines.Reports on ‘upper’ caste groups expressing discontent have appear to mirror the outrage the Mandal announcements drew in 1990 from enraged ‘upper’ caste student groups and have spread to many regions in the country from the UGC office in New Delhi to Madhubani in Bihar. In Uttar Pradesh the momentum is growing with Hapur, Aligarh, Pratapgarh, Meerut, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Lucknow, Prayagraj, Bareilly, Jaunpur, Deoria, and Mirzapur, reporting protests. Student protests have been seen in most cities and towns of Uttar Pradesh creating a visible divide between the ‘general’ and reserved classes. A public-interest litigation has also been filed in the Supreme Court to hear this matter. Even BJP allied groups like Karni Sena, Brahmin Mahasabha, Kayastha Mahasabha and various Vaishya organisations are coming out in open support for the protest in Uttar Pradesh.‘But why UGC, Modi ji?’There is considerable speculation within Uttar Pradesh about what could have prompted this move from the BJP government which, if anything has been seen as being partial to its core ‘upper-caste’ constituency. Pushing for a 10% share in reservation only for ‘general’ category students under the EWS scheme is an important expression of this partiality. The RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has also periodically railed against reservations even if the party leadership has been cautious. The nod to hold a caste census was also seen as a major turnaround.Closer to memory three events are cited as emblematic of the BJP’s mistreatment of marginalised groups – the shoe-throwing at the first Dalit Chief Justice of India and the accused not being prosecuted against, no attempt to get justice for the Hathras victim and the death of Rohith Vemula. The data on the total number of rape cases against women of the Scheduled Caste communities is on the rise. From 2,541 cases reported in 2016 the number has jumped to 4,214 cases in 2023 reportedly. So what advantage could politically savvy people like Narendra Modi and Amit Shah get from stirring the hornet’s nest? The answer, as per many of Adityanath’s supporters this writer spoke to, could be Machiavellian. Uttar Pradesh elections are due in 2027. Could it be that one year before this, Modi and Shah could be trying to rattle Adityanath’s bastion? With the ‘upper’ castes in rebellion, Adityanath’s votes could suffer in the upcoming elections and may increase the chances of a defeat. If Adityanath is defeated in 2027 election, the reins of control could more firmly remain with Modi and Shah.The political rift and contest for power between Modi-Shah and Adityanath is by now, well known. Adityanath is known to be one of the last (if not only) BJP chief ministers to be holding out against the centralising and controlling impulse of Modi and Shah. It must not be lost on anyone that the political clout of senior leaders like Murli Manohar Joshi, L.K. Advani, Vasundhara Raje, Shivraj Singh, Rajnath Singh, and Raman Singh Baghel have wilted dramatically over the past decade. Could it be that the guidelines will be used to split the vote in Uttar Pradesh, making the state assembly elections 2027 more challenging for Adityanath? Some of his supporters certainly feel that once the election is subverted, the Union government will amend the guidelines placating the voters and bolstering support for Modi again.Indra Shekhar Singh is an independent agri-policy analyst and writer.