MINORITY EDUCATION BILL
Who Will Benefit: Minorities Or Elite In Minorities?
K K Ragesh
(National President of the Students Federation of India.)
THE National Minority Education Commission Bill, which allows direct
affiliation of minority educational institutes to central universities, was
passed by a voice vote in the parliament during the recent winter session.
Earlier, on November 11, in spite of knowing fully well that the parliament
was scheduled to meet in a month~Rs time, the central government had in
haste issued an ordinance on the same matter, seeking to bypass many
legitimate and necessary discussions on this crucial issue. Of the various
amendments proposed by Left MPs to this bill, regarding consulting the state
governments while granting such affiliations, only one was accepted by the
parliament.
UNFORTUNATE ASPECT
According to this bill, any minority educational institutes seeking
affiliation to a central university will be granted such affiliation. The
various central universities named for the purpose, in the schedule of the
bill, are: University of Delhi, Pondicherry University, North Eastern Hill
University, Assam University, Nagaland University and Mizoram University. If
a university named in the schedule denies affiliation to an institute, a
three-member commission (with all the three belonging to the minority
community) would give the final and binding ruling. This committee will be
headed by a High Court judge and vested with all relevant executive and
judicial powers. This commission can advise the central and state
governments on any question relating to the minorities' education, which are
referred to it. According to the bill, the commission can look into
specific complaints regarding deprivation or violation of rights of
minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their
choice and any dispute relating affiliation to a scheduled university and
report its findings to the central government for its implementation. Only
the central government shall have the powers to overrule the decisions of
the commission.
The National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) of the United Progressive
Alliance (UPA) mentions that minority educational institutions will be given
direct affiliation to central universities. It is a known fact that during
its tenure the BJP-led regime had discriminated against and harassed many
minority educational institutions. This discrimination was in line with the
BJP~Rs open opposition to the constitutional rights granted to the
minorities under Article 30. It is because of the discrimination meted out
to the minority institutes in BJP-ruled state like Gujarat and Madhya
Pradesh that the UPA incorporated the said objective in its NCMP.
Unfortunately, instead of protecting the minority communities~R right to set
up educational institutes of their choice and thus cater to the interests of
the whole communities, the bill seeks to protect the interests of a select
few. The latter are the very vested interests who run minority educational
institutes on self-financing basis, without taking into account many
relevant and genuine concerns raised by many concerned academics and
sections over the past several years.
ART. 30: IMPORT IMPORTANCE
The constitution of India provides for special rights to both linguistic and
religious minorities ~Sto establish and administer educational institutions
of their choice under Article 30. Hence no such law can be framed as may
discriminate against such minorities with regard to the establishment and
administration of the educational institutions vis-a-vis other educational
institutions. Article 30 is a special right conferred on the religious and
linguistic minorities because of their numerical handicap and to instil in
them a sense of confidence. In the St Xavier's College case, the Supreme
Court has rightly pointed out, The whole object of conferring the right on
the minorities under Article 30 is to ensure that there will be equality
between the majority and the minority. If the minorities do not have such
special protection they will be denied equality.
While upholding these rights, the Supreme Court has, in the TMA Pai case,
also endorsed the concept that there should be no reverse discrimination and
opines that the essence of Article 30(1) is to ensure equal treatment
between the majority and the minority institutions. No one type or category
of institution should be disfavoured or, for that matter, receive more
favourable treatment than another. Laws of the land, including rules and
regulations, must apply equally to the majority institutions as well as to
the minority institutions.
The Supreme Court has time and again, in many judgements, ruled that
minority status can be decided only by taking the state as a unit. It has
reasoned that since religious and linguistic' are mentioned at the same
time in Article 30 of the constitution, and since the states were carved out
in India by taking language as the
