By: Karan Thapar Published in: *The Wire* Date: November 26, 2024 Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXcyok2zHBc *Note:* The interview is in English and the transcript is embedded in the source
"In a forceful and detailed articulation of minority rights, one of India’s foremost legal scholars has said 'minority rights are part of the basic structure of the constitution', adding 'they cannot be tampered with'. Prof. Faizan Mustafa, the Vice-Chancellor of Chanakya National Law University and a Professor of Law at Aligarh Muslim University, said that the Supreme Court of India in the 1974 St. Xavier [v. State of Gujarat] judgement had said that minority rights are part of the basic structure of the constitution and cannot be tampered with 'as long as the constitution survives'. He said, in fact, the earlier 1973 Kesavananda Bharati [v. State of Kerala] judgement has specifically laid down that minority rights are part of the basic structure. In a 35-minute interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Prof. Mustafa made clear that any claim to the contrary is not just unfounded, false and wrong but tendentious, misleading and malicious."
