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The Al-Falah episode is a reminder that the system entrusted with certifying credibility in higher learning has become almost incapable of identifying the worst possible red flags
The private university was running at least nine educational institutions that included streams like humanities, language, molecular science, engineering, and medical science. File pic/PTI
The arrest of Al-Falah University’s owner-founder and the following crackdown on multiple medical colleges early this week should not shock anyone. Instead, what is really shocking is how India’s higher education bodies, University Grants Commission (UGC), National Medical Commission (NMC), and National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI), failed to see what was unfolding right under their noses. For years, higher education regulators and related authorities, which recognised Al-Falah University and allowed grants, have remained a lumbering bureaucracy. They were heavy on circulars, light on scrutiny, loud on regulation, and silent on the ground. There was no periodical scrutiny.
The Al-Falah episode is only the latest reminder that the system entrusted with certifying credibility in higher learning has become almost incapable of identifying the worst possible red flags.
Long before the blast, the signs were all there
The private university was running at least nine educational institutions that included streams like humanities, language, molecular science, engineering, and medical science. Authorisation for two of its schools expired at least two years ago. Al-Falah University has been “show-caused” by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) for putting out “misleading” information. However, the action came after the Red Fort road blast.
This shows that there was no monitoring on such a widely spread network of a private university, which is located kilometres away from the country’s capital. This case, if unearthed earlier, should itself have triggered a cascade of monitoring, documentation checks, and enforcement steps.
Instead, there was no due diligence, no verification, and no inquiry into how a deregistered institution continued to function, admit students, and issue degrees. The regulators never asked the basic questions, like when was the last time its team visited the campus? Who verified the records?
India’s intelligence infrastructure is already overstretched with political networks, overseas-funded operations, and an expanding population that is itself deeply diverse and resistant to being boxed into a single identity.
Yet, while the security establishment grapples with complexities, the education regulator appears to be functioning with a stunning lack of curiosity. The clip circulating on social media that triggered revulsion everywhere is only a symptom; the disease is the absence of a functioning verification architecture in India’s higher education sector.
A crafted campaign that buried red flags
This is not just a bureaucratic lapse. But, as the investigation progresses, an overwhelming leak-plant operation reveals itself. A system built to ensure quality and legality is instead providing convenient blind spots. The regulators have, over time, become a passive collector of paperwork rather than an active guardian of standards.
The commission’s default mode is to trust declarations, not inspect realities. Its protocols are stuck in an era where affidavits and letters carried weight, even though modern educational frauds are digitally sophisticated, internally networked, and often politically camouflaged.
The Al-Falah case exposes the consequences. The institutions that should not exist continue to shape young lives, regulatory alerts vanish into files, security flags are ignored, and a parallel ecosystem flourishes in plain sight. The problem is not merely administrative; it is structural. A regulator that does not verify periodically cannot regulate.
Madhuparna Das, Associate Editor (policy) at CNN News 18, has been in journalism for nearly 14 years. She has extensively been covering politics, policy, crime and internal security issues. She has covered Naxa…Read More
Madhuparna Das, Associate Editor (policy) at CNN News 18, has been in journalism for nearly 14 years. She has extensively been covering politics, policy, crime and internal security issues. She has covered Naxa… Read More
November 28, 2025, 08:00 IST
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