New Delhi, Feb. 18: Private minority-run higher education institutions have objected to the government’s plan to regulate their fees and admission policy, threatening to derail a proposed law that will pave the way for entry of foreign universities into India.

In letters to the human resource development ministry, Muslim- and Christian-run universities have asked to be exempt from a planned law to check commercialisation of higher education, senior officials said.

The objections may indefinitely delay the proposed law that the Left parties have demanded as a condition for any decision to allow foreign education providers access to Indian territory.

“Politically, the government has a balancing act to do between the Left and the minorities. But the commerce ministry is keen to allow foreign providers entry soon. The fear is we may trip up on political commitments — either to the Left or to the minorities,” a senior official said.

The Allahabad Agricultural Institute (deemed university), run by Catholics, has written that the regulations would infringe on its constitutional right to autonomy as a minority institution.

Other institutes from Kerala have expressed fears that the regulations were aimed at “diluting” their “minority character”.

With the National Commission on Minority Education Institutions accusing the Left governments in Kerala and Bengal of interfering in minority education, the Centre will have to tread with caution, sources said.

But the Left, a crucial ally supporting the government, cannot be offended either.

India’s national policy on education clearly states that the government is against commercialisation of education.

Yet, the government has been unable to check the proliferation of private universities and colleges, which feed on a shortage of supply of quality institutes to charge exorbitant fees.

These institutes are outside the purview of the government’s schemes for social inclusiveness — they do not need to reserve seats for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, for instance.

When the HRD ministry first started preparing a draft bill for the entry of foreign education providers in 2006, the Left objected.

In meetings with education minister Arjun Singh, CPM leader Brinda Karat made it clear the Left would not allow the bill to clear Parliament if the government did not first check private players in India.

The Left argued that without a regulatory mechanism, private players would “commercialise education”.