Analysis National

Inside Ajeet Bharti’s UGC blitz: How the equity rules row went from screens to street protests

Repeated livestreams and posts by the YouTuber and journalist amplified fears over UGC equity rules, energising #UGCRollBack campaign and street protests

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Shailesh Khanduri
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Ajeet Bharti UGC Regulations

Journalist Ajeet Bharti (Left) in a screengrab from his YouTube video discussing UGC regulations

New Delhi: Long before students gathered outside the University Grants Commission (UGC) headquarters in Delhi, the fight over the UGC’s Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions Regulations, 2026 had already been turned into a high-decibel online campaign, driven in large part by journalist-commentator Ajeet Bharti’s sustained criticism across YouTube and X.

The regulations were notified on January 13, introducing an expanded compliance framework to address caste-based discrimination, including equity committees and other institutional mechanisms.

Opponents argued the rules were stacked against “general category” students and could be misused, and the online backlash quickly coalesced under #UGC_RollBack.

Bharti’s role in pushing the controversy into the mainstream was not a single viral post or one-off monologue.

It was a rolling, multi-format pressure campaign that kept returning to the same claims, widened the audience each day, and repeatedly framed the issue as urgent enough to force a public response.

Two days after the notification, Bharti streamed a live show on January 15 that attacked the UGC rules in combative terms, describing the provisions as “horrific” and positioning them as a threat to “defenceless general caste” students, as reflected in the programme title and description on YouTube.

As the argument spread, Bharti used follow-up videos to answer criticism and keep the controversy burning.

In one such video, he claimed the rules would make life “hell” for general category students, especially males, and framed pushback as an organised attempt to discredit critics.

He also pushed variations of the same theme through additional uploads, including a video claiming “general caste” was being “targeted” and another focusing on the mechanics of “equity squads,” again based on the titles and descriptions published on YouTube.

Bharti’s content did not stay confined to “this is a bad policy”. It moved into explicit, action-oriented framing about street pressure.

A video on his channel described how “general caste-related groups” were “threatening to take to streets in protest,” and argued that raising voices was “necessary,” as per the description.

That escalation became even sharper on January 20, when Bharti streamed another live show whose title and description directly tied the UGC rules row to on-ground mobilisation.

The description claimed that “after 4 days of relentless writing, speaking, opposing,” “upper caste takes to roads,” presenting the campaign as a cause-and-effect sequence.

Bharti also appeared on other creators’ platforms, extending the message into adjacent audiences that overlap with political commentary and activist ecosystems.

One such programme, framed as “Modi ji, stop this,” was hosted on another channel and billed around Bharti’s “anger” on the UGC rules, according to its listing.

This cross-platform presence matters because it is a standard mobilisation tactic: repetition across networks, not just repetition within one.

How Bharti turned ‘government silence’ into a central storyline

A notable feature of the campaign was the insistence that the government was keeping quiet and that public anger had to be forced into visibility.

This “why are they not answering” framing is evident across the way his streams were packaged, including language suggesting the government was “sleeping” while the controversy grew.

By January 27, protest calls were publicly reported, with students from upper-caste communities announcing a demonstration outside the UGC headquarters in Delhi.

A group of students later protested outside the UGC office and submitted demands, including a rollback of the regulations, according to reports from the day.

As the protests expanded, the government responded publicly. Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said there would be “no discrimination” and that the rules would not be “misused”.

Bharti, in later streams, explicitly linked that ministerial statement to the intensity of the backlash, again reflecting how his campaign framed itself.

Then the legal fight overtook the political fight.

On January 29, the Supreme Court stayed the 2026 regulations, expressing concern over provisions it described as “prima facie vague” and “very sweeping,” and warning about the potential for misuse and social division.

The matter is scheduled for further hearing on March 19, with the 2012 framework continuing in the interim.

Supporters of the rollback campaign now present Bharti as the central catalyst who pushed a technical regulatory change into mass consciousness before it became a protest story.

The evidence for his role is not that he formally “organised” demonstrations, but that he sustained a high-frequency, high-anger narrative across platforms, repeatedly urging escalation, and explicitly tying his messaging to street mobilisation in real time through his broadcasts and posts.

Supreme Court Narendra Modi General Category higher education Dharmendra Pradhan UGC UGC regulations caste discrimination UGC Act Ajeet Bharti