sandhya jain: 104th amendment is bad

dec 27th

this is one dangerous bill. nobody but an extreme bigot would have pushed such a bill forward.

natwar singh and arjun singh are the most dubious characters in the congress government, along with mani shankar aiyar. i suspect all of them have volckergate-like dealings. i am just waiting for someone to expose arjun singh's villainy.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sandhya J

Organiser-MinorityBill-25Dec2005

Sharpening communal faultlines

 

Sandhya Jain 

 

            A new communal faultline has been added to the body politic vide the 104^th Constitution Amendment Bill which provides reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in unaided private educational institutions, including schools, but excludes minority institutions from its ambit.

 

            The legislation is fraught with dangers for the homogeneity and integrity of Indian society as a whole, and should never have been passed in such haste. It bears noting that the Supreme Court is currently hearing a petition demanding inclusion of Dalit Christians among Scheduled Castes for reservation benefits. Dalit Muslims have also been making allegations of discrimination against their upper caste brethren (mostly invaders who intermarried with upper caste Hindus).

 

Now, the UPA has successfully piloted the most communally divisive legislation the country has seen so far. It identifies institutions of the Hindu majority for divisive intrusion by SCs and STs, and perhaps later also OBCs, and privileges the money-spinning minority institutions.

 

World-wide, both Christianity and Islam have discriminated against low caste converts, reneging blithely on promises of social equality and economic upliftment. It is this, rather than active or passive discrimination by the secular Indian State, that has resulted in the poor educational status of their adherents. Various Christian denominations mint money by providing school, college and professional education to rich and middle class Hindu children; vigorously evangelize amongst the poor, but deny them true empowerment that comes from education. There can be simply no excuse for low literacy and poor educational opportunities for children of Christian converts, as the church as a whole is a major stakeholder in the education industry.

 

Islam has fewer elite educational institutions, but it is noteworthy that the Aligarh Muslim University has reserved the majority of its seats for Muslims on the basis of all-India merit competition, which is evidence of a desire to improve the lot of the community. A minority institution that does not dedicate itself to uplifting its own community does not deserve the status of a minority institution, and must be recognized instead as a minority-managed institution of profit.    

 

There is no denying the political disquiet caused by the Bill, which resulted in massive abstentions from Parliament, despite most parties issuing whips to ensure the mandatory two-thirds majority (only 381 out of 522 Members were present). It is being realized across party lines that non-inclusion of minority institutions could prove counter-productive; Left parties have suggested that admissions and fees be monitored in these institutions. HRD Minister Arjun Singh however played to his minority constituency to the hilt, and promised further legislation to bring OBCs under the reservation umbrella.

 

Mr. Singh had no credible explanation for sneaking in the clause barring minority institutions from the purview of the Bill; however, the religious denomination of the UPA Chairperson is no secret. He spoke about the need to "protect minority rights under all circumstances." But given the undeniable fact that most Christians and Muslims are converts from the SC and ST communities, the exclusion of minority institutions from the Bill is bad in law and bad in intent. It also gives the Church a virtual license to convert and abandon the converted, while running after fresh recruits. At the same time, the Hindu community is left with the responsibility of educating and caring for a group alienated from its civilizational moorings and nurturing feelings of separation from the majority community. This is truly Machiavellian.

 

The new legislation makes a mockery of the spirit of Article 15 of the Constitution by discriminating against the Hindu community on grounds of caste, in a manner that could place undue financial burden upon ordinary Hindu households. For instance, schools that have to admit students on the basis of caste rather than merit may also have to provide freeships to keep such students in school, if their families are unable to pay the fees. This will compel them to pass on the burden to ordinary middle class parents, who may already be finding it a struggle to see two children through school. This could have serious ramifications across the country, and is a perfect instance of sterile activism in the service of votebanks.

 

A far more worthy exercise would be for the State to direct education to specific segments of the population by investing in adequate educational facilities at school level. Just as freer and fairer elections were ensured by the Election Commission by placing ballot boxes closer to the villages and slums that were otherwise excluded from voting, so bringing schools closer to the underprivileged, irrespective of caste or creed, would ensure universal literacy in a non-divisive manner.

 

Realization of the larger implications of this legislation – intended to overturn a Supreme Court ruling on 12 August 2005 that unaided minority and non-minority institutions can admit students of their choice in medicine, engineering and other professional courses without government interference – has led 20 MPs, including two Ministers, to ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to bring minority institutions under its ambit as several premier minority institutions were either religious or linguistic minorities.  

 

Mr. Manik Rao Gavit, Minister of State for Home and Mr. Panabaki Lakshmi, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, and Mr. R. Gavai, chairman of the Forum of SC/ST Parliamentarians, joined a delegation that presented a memorandum to the Prime Minister. They pointed out that denying deprived communities access to premier minority institutions would lead to crowding of non-minority institutions, and demanded that the matter be referred to the Standing Committee of Parliament on HRD. This is a wise suggestion and Dr. Manmohan Singh would do well to reexamine the issue dispassionately.

 

END