Despite the Supreme Court’s stay order on the University Grants Commission (Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2026 last month, upper caste anger has not been quelled. As protests demanding the implementation of the equity rules to bar caste-based discrimination have gathered steam across university campuses, particularly in north India, casteist slogans of “Brahmanwad Zindabad” were raised in Delhi University, pointing to a consolidation of upper caste anger against constitutional safeguards for marginalised communities. Despite the growing confrontation, the main political parties, caught between not wanting to alienate either upper or lower caste groups, have maintained silence on the fractious issue, raising questions about social justice politics beyond electoral gains.“There is a lack of political coherence and doublespeak when it comes to social justice issues from major political parties. For electoral benefit, they may speak of samajik nyay (social justice) but when the time comes to stand up for the majority of the people experiencing denial of social justice and their due share in university spaces, mainstream political parties are also trying to play the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) co-optive politics,” said N. Sukumar, professor in the Department of Political Science at Delhi University.The 2026 regulations, now stayed, trace their origins to a petition filed in 2019 by Abeda Salim Tadvi and Radhika Vemula, the mothers of Payal Tadvi and Rohith Vemula, respectively, who sought better implementation of the 2012 regulations and stronger mechanisms to address discrimination. The petition challenging the 2026 rules – which led to the stay order – contended that the protection to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes against caste-based discrimination would divide the country on caste lines. It also argued that the regulations were not caste-neutral and that upper castes should be within the ambit of the protections they offered. The court accepted the contentions and said that it would examine, in March, the constitutional question of whether giving protection to these marginalised identities will segregate the nation.The Supreme Court order last month called the UGC’s 2026 rules “capable of misuse” and put them in abeyance till March 19, the date by which the Union government and the University Grants Commission will have to respond to the Supreme Court’s notice. The court has ordered that the 2012 Regulations will operate in the meantime.Following the order, BJP MP Giriraj Singh, TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee, Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi and Congress’s Pramod Tiwari were among the political leaders who hailed the stay. Only a handful of political leaders including those from the DMK, and Left parties like CPI(ML) stood in support of the UGC equity rules. With protests now gathering steam, major political parties have once again resorted to silence.Also read: Dalit Student Alleges Caste Abuse at Gujarat Central University; ABVP-Linked Students BlamedMeanwhile campuses are on the boil. On February 13, a protest in support of the UGC equity rules backed by All India Students’ Association (AISA) at Delhi University turned violent as a YouTuber Ruchi Tiwari alleged that a mob attacked and manhandled her. AISA, on the other hand, has alleged that Tiwari had hurled casteist slurs. Videos on social media showed huge crowds later that evening, in which slogans of “Brahmanwad Zindabad” were raised. Delhi University on Tuesday banned protests for a month.At Jawaharlal Nehru University, protests have also continued demanding the implementation of the UGC rules, even as four students’ union office bearers have been rusticated for two semesters. Protests have also been held in Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow, where earlier Apna Dal (K) legislator Pallavi Patel was detained during a march supporting the implementation of the UGC rules last week. On Monday, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) MLAs held a protest outside the Bihar assembly, demanding the implementation of the UGC rules and 85% reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs.Despite the counter mobilisation demanding the implementation of the equity rules, the silence of the principal political parties remains conspicuous.The Congress – the principal opposition party that led its 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign championing social justice, has remained mum on the upper caste backlash to the UGC rules, protests against it, as well as the chorus for its implementation following the Supreme Court stay. The party’s Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Tiwari, though, was quick to hail the Supreme Court stay order.Advocate Satyam Pandey (foreground), the first petitioner who challenged the UGC’s 2026 equity regulations, outside the Supreme Court after it stayed the regulations, in New Delhi, January 29, 2026. Photo: PTI.“The government’s job is to ensure peace, but they ignite fire in the name of religion, caste, so that people’s attention gets diverted from real issues like unemployment and inflation. I thank the Supreme Court for stopping this black move by the government,” said Tiwari, following the order.The party’s silence on the issue comes as the Karnataka government headed by the Congress has continued to move slowly on the Rohith Vemula (Protection of SC/STs from Caste Discrimination in Higher Educational Institutions) Bill 2025. This is despite Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi raising questions about its commitment to social justice politics beyond electoral gains. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who also led his party to victory in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, handing the BJP its worst defeat in the state in a decade, with his PDA (Picchda Dalit Adivasi) campaign, has also chosen a diplomatic stance of the “guilty should not be spared and the innocent should not be meted out injustice.”“In the (recently concluded) winter session of parliament it was largely expected that the opposition, especially the INDIA parties headed by the leader of the opposition, who often talk about the need for social justice in Indian politics, the need to fight against the exclusionary agenda of BJP and RSS, would talk about the UGC regulations. But their conspicuous silence emboldens the anti-equality forces, those who do not want equality in democratic participation,” said Subhajit Naskar, assistant professor at Jadavpur University.“The most important point that I feel that the opposition has failed to understand and therefore maintain strategic silence is that the UGC equality norms are absolutely in line with the constitution’s vision for liberty, equality and fraternity. This regulation has ensured Articles 14,15, 16, 17, 21A and Article 46, all of them, are the bedrock of creating a vibrant democratic citizenship and university spaces will create greater citizens.”The BJP has found respite in the Supreme Court’s stay order. The saffron party in the immediate aftermath of the notification of the 2026 UGC equity rules, faced backlash from upper caste groups as it was confronted with widespread protests, resignations within its own party including office bearers and petitions filed against the Modi government’s own equity rules that the UGC notified under a court-monitored process.The Wire has reported that the Supreme Court’s stay order provided the BJP with a way out for its tightrope act of Hindutva politics, where on one hand it wants to subsume all castes under an umbrella Hindu unity, while on the other, it also wants to pursue the Dalits and backward-caste groups to build a rainbow social coalition for electoral salience. This has reflected in the last three elections, where the skew between BJP’s upper class support base compared to its support from the poor and lower economic classes narrowed in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections compared to 2014.Also read: ‘Caste Census the Greatest Achievement of Rahul Gandhi’: Kancha Ilaiah on Rise of OBC and Reservation PoliticsThe party’s top leadership’s silence is therefore no surprise, with only Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan providing an assurance that the regulations will not be misused, which did little to quell the anger.“There is an upper caste political force which is prevalent in these parties, including in the opposition, that have held their top leaders back from taking a strong stance in favour of equality regulations and also, their fear of losing upper caste votes. But they should know that women, SCs, STs and OBCs form the largest part of the electorate and by staying quiet they have allowed the defeat of constitutional principles,” said Naskar.While upper caste anger, focusing on the discrimination that they could face as a result of the now stayed UGC 2026 rules, stopped its implementation, data shows that these objections are prejudicial. The UGC’s own data submitted to a parliamentary panel and the Supreme Court shows that caste-based discrimination complaints in universities and colleges jumped 118.4% from 2019-20 to 2023-24.In 2021, Union minister Pradhan informed parliament in a written reply that out of 122 student suicides in top institutions and central universities between 2014 and 2021, 68, or 55% were from backward communities.In August 2022, government data shared with parliament showed there was only one Vice Chancellor from the SC category and one belonging to the ST category across 45 central universities.The 2026 rules were brought under a Supreme Court-monitored process because the 2012 regulations were found to be inadequate in addressing caste-based discrimination on campuses.According to Sukumar, with slogans like “Brahmanwad Zindabad” being raised, caste vulgarity has come out in the open. Meanwhile, a counter mobilisation is also slowly picking up pace in north India.“The way forward first is to create radical empathy through dialogue with all stakeholders and the Supreme Court needs to play a crucial role as the government has remained silent,” said Sukumar.“The government’s silence reflects a deep political conspiracy, where on one hand by including OBCs in the UGC Equity Rules, you create fear psychosis, then stage protests, then go to court which gives this order, which makes the upper caste groups happy. This is a double-edged sword that the government is using through which it wants to gain benefits from both ends.”The opposition’s silence stands in sharp contrast to its vociferous advocacy for a nationwide caste census that forced the Union government to buckle under pressure. This has raised questions whether the current silence is a ‘course correction’, aimed at not alienating influential upper caste groups.“Even the opposition’s silence on this in parliament and outside means that social justice politics is merely an electoral rhetoric rather than a guiding principle,” said Naskar, adding, “Indian politics today, if it wants to challenge exclusion, prejudices, irrationalities, along with fascism and capitalism, should strengthen the equality agenda which forms the very basis of social justice politics.”