Days after The Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026, was introduced in Lok Sabha, the government and faculty members hit out at each other. While members of the teaching staff said the new bill would lead to the loss of autonomy over academics and governance, government officials accused them of wanting to cling on to power like “local satraps”.Addressing reporters in Delhi, faculty members from the Indian Institute of Statistics-Kolkata (ISI) said on Wednesday that the new bill’s proposal to replace the existing 33-member Governing Council to an 11-member Board of Governors, a change in the structure from a society to a body corporate, and the government’s expansion plans risked sending the institute into a limbo for the next five years and the Centre exerting complete control over its future.Opposition party members including Saugata Roy, John Brittas, Praveen Chakravarty, and Pratima Mondal — also present at the briefing — called for the bill to be referred to the Standing Committee on Finance, with Roy saying the bill was a “bureaucratic conspiracy”. Renowned economist Prabhat Patnaik said the bill was an “insult to PC Mahalanobis”, referring to the famed statistician who founded ISI in 1931.Tabled in the Parliament on Monday, almost one year after a draft version was made public for feedback and drew intense criticism, the new bill would lead to the repeal of the 1959 legislation that governs India’s premier statistical institute. According to government officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the new bill is needed to bring about necessary changes that are currently being blocked or taking too long to be implemented: an increase in the number of students, autonomy for Delhi, Bengaluru, and other centres, greater accountability, and expansion of teaching programmes, among others.Proposed board structure faces criticism“It’s not in our interest to kill the institute,” said a senior government official. “The new bill says the Board of Governors can overrule the Academic Council where it needs to. And that’s fair.”“They don’t want to give up any autonomy because that’s what they are comfortable with,” the official added, referring to members of ISI faculty.ISI faculty pointed out that the composition of the proposed Board of Governors — which will replace the Governing Council as the main decision-making body — was also problematic as it excludes the Dean of Academic Affairs.Story continues below this adDeclared as an institute of national importance in 1959, the Kolkata-headquartered ISI operates under the administrative jurisdiction of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). It is involved in research, teaching, and application of statistics, natural sciences and social sciences and has contributed heavily to India’s official statistics. According to MoSPI officials, the new bill will help ISI grow beyond traditional statistics by expanding the coverage of ‘statistical sciences’, enabling it to set up centres and campuses in India and abroad.“The bill is aligned with the evolving needs of India’s data-driven economy to promote sustainable use of frontier technology and to build deeper analytical capacity for the government, industry, and society,” government officials said, adding that the new bill would align the ISI with peer institutes such as IITs and IIMs.However, faculty members told The Indian Express that ISI was “not an IIT or IIM” and any expansion plans would overstretch the ISI.“If the bill passes, all our rules will have to be re-written. That will take years,” said a faculty member. “But rewriting rules is not the problem. The question is what is the need to bring in a new law altogether when the current legislation in place has the flexibility for the changes the government and MoSPI are calling for.”Story continues below this adAutonomy remains key flashpointGovernment officials contend that under the ISI’s current society structure, changes to the Memorandum of Association, regulations, and bye-laws require the approval of three-fourths of the voting members of the ISI’s General Body of about 1,800 members, which includes current and former ISI employees.But ISI faculty argued that the government has the power to compel ISI to make changes to its Memorandum of Association but had made no attempt to do so.“The 1959 Act has several provisions (Sections 9, 11, and 12) for the government to intervene if ISI fails or underperforms in some manner. The proposed changes are not to enforce but complete control by the Central Government and the elimination of internal democracy!” a statement said.Another bone of contention is the process through which the bill has been tabled. MoSPI officials say that it put up the draft bill in public domain for feedback and got around 600 comments, over half of which were from ISI faculty. Some of the suggestions were incorporated.Story continues below this adISI professors admitted that they had sent their comments. However, “individual comments can’t be a substitute for institutional deliberations.”“If you want to make changes to a society, you have to come and speak to the society and its members,” a professor said.