The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 seeks to usher in a transformational change in Indian education by enabling a deliberate transition from a rigid, teacher-directed and rote learning system to a flexible, learner-centred and self-directed (heutagogical) educational paradigm. However, a persistent challenge in broad educational reform is the gap that frequently exists between innovative policy discourse and actual institutional practice. This article critically examines the learner-oriented directives of NEP 2020 in the light of Rabindranath Tagore’s 1918 allegory of education, Tota-Kahini (The Parrot’s Tale), as a pedagogical diagnostic tool. In Tota-Kahini Tagore hints at how the innate energy, curiosity and independence of the student is crushed out by elaborate institutional structures, bureaucracy and mechanical textuality. The current qualitative study juxtaposes the Tagorean anti-mechanistic educational philosophy with existing policy initiatives and seeks to explore whether post-NEP curricular reforms foster authentic student autonomy or inadvertently construct a modern-day, metric-driven ‘gold cage’. Drawing on qualitative policy analysis, curriculum theory and philosophical inquiry, the research explores how key structural and pedagogical barriers, including over-reliance on standard digital delivery, inflexible credit systems and bureaucratic audit cultures, undermine the depth of heutagogical principles and turn them into superficial compliance. Furthermore, the manuscript argues that true heutagogical autonomy goes beyond basic administrative updates to include learner agency, innovative exploration, holistic well-being, and compassionate mentorship in curriculum design for instruction and teacher training. Finally, the research proposes a Tagorean-compatible evaluation framework that provides curriculum planners, education managers and policy implementers with practical diagnostic criteria to ensure that the learner-oriented vision of NEP 2020 indeed liberates student potential rather than simply reasserting it.