An anonymous social media post calling B.R. Ambedkar's Annihilation of Caste and Jyotiba Phule's Gulamgiri 'poison' for young minds was followed, within 24 hours, by a data-call from the Ministry of Education to all central universities — and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has seized on that sequence as evidence of what he calls a government at war with social justice education. Gandhi posted the allegation on Wednesday, September 30, 2026, sharpening a battle-line over who controls what India's students read.

The sequence Gandhi is pointing to

In his post, Gandhi described the chain of events with precision: an anonymous account on X flagged several foundational social-reform texts as intellectually dangerous to youth; the very next day — a Sunday — the Prime Minister's Office purportedly directed the Ministry of Education to write to all central universities seeking syllabus details and enrolment data for courses featuring such content. Gandhi translated that sequence into a political charge: 'The Prime Minister who stays silent on paper leaks, unemployment and student safety acts immediately at the nudge of internet trolls.'

The Ministry of Education has not issued a public clarification on the nature or scope of the data request as of the time of publishing. NationPress could not independently verify the specific PMO directive or the precise timing of the anonymous post relative to the ministry's communication.

Why Ambedkar and Phule sit at the centre of this row

B.R. Ambedkar's Annihilation of Caste — originally a speech written in 1936 — is among the most cited texts in any course on Indian sociology, constitutional history, or Dalit studies. Jyotiba Phule's Gulamgiri, published in 1873, argued that caste hierarchy was a form of slavery and advocated universal education for lower castes; it is taught across history and social-science programmes. Both authors are enshrined in the national consciousness: Ambedkar as the principal drafter of the Indian Constitution, Phule as a foundational figure of the 19th-century social reform movement. Any suggestion that these texts promote harmful ideas carries immediate symbolic and electoral weight, particularly with Dalit and OBC voter blocs.

A recurring fault-line in Indian higher education

The row lands inside a long-running tension. Since the National Education Policy 2020 directed universities to update curricula toward 'value-based' and multidisciplinary content under UGC coordination, opposition parties and faculty bodies have repeatedly raised questions about whether that framing gives the central government room to reshape syllabi along ideological lines. Curriculum-related data requests from the ministry to central universities are not new — but the alleged timing and trigger described by Gandhi give this one a sharper edge.

Gandhi's framing is direct: 'Modi ji is against social justice and equality. His entire system hates education because he does not want students to think or ask questions.' Whether or not the operational details he describes are confirmed, the political argument is clear — the Congress is positioning the government as hostile to the intellectual heritage of India's most revered social reformers, and doing so with a specific, time-stamped sequence of events as its anchor.

With central university students, faculty unions, and Ambedkarite political networks all watching, the Ministry of Education's next move — clarification, denial, or silence — will define where this controversy travels.