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Minority Institutions Will Be At A Disadvantage
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07.06.04 (4 years ago)
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Minority Institutions Will Be At A Disadvantage
By FAIZAN MUSTAFA in THE STATESMAN
The guidelines from the ministries lay down that the state governments can decide on the reservation for minorities in minority institutions not exceeding 50 per cent. Thus even unaided institutions cannot reserve more than 50 per cent seats which goes against the ratio of the decision. The executive has thus brought the distinction between a minority and non- minority institution to an end. The apex court explicitly overruled the rigid limit of 50 per cent reservation as laid down in the St Stephen’s case. The court has said that the non-minority students in a minority institution cannot be in such numbers as to defeat the basic purpose of establishing such institutions.
Grants
Moreover, it is disgusting to note that the above guidelines give a very wide and liberal definition of the term “aid’’. Since the apex court has given maximum autonomy to unaided private minority institutions, the above guidelines have so defined “aid’’ that no institution in the country can remain an unaided minority institution. Every aspect of support such as financial grant/equity, land, subsidised land, subsidised leased land or building, free or subsidised attachment with government hospitals or any such facility given at a concessional rate has been treated as “aid’’ to deny autonomy to the minority institutions. As a matter of fact “aid’’ should mean only non-plan grant and maintenance grant for salaries. Plan grant for development should not be termed as aid.
The court has clearly laid down that any grant given by the state cannot have such conditions attached to it, which will in any way dilute or abridge the rights of the minority institution to establish and administer that institution. The real intention of the court as reflected in its ratio seems to be that minority institutions are basically meant for the minorities and no regulation is valid if it goes against the interest of minorities. On this touchstone, it is submitted that in the minority institutions which are receiving 100 per cent non-plan grant, at least 65 per cent seats should be reserved for the minority community which has established those institutions. The unaided minority institutions should be allowed to have 85 per cent seats reserved so that the educational rights of minorities become a reality.
CET is also an assault on the autonomy of universities and higher education institutions of great repute. It is ironical that while in all other areas, the government is talking about deregulation, decentralisation, in the case of education, over-centralisation is becoming a harsh and painful reality. Such an assault on the autonomy of universities must be resisted. One expected that the new HRD ministry will take a more rational view of the problem but it seems the so-called secular Congress-led government does not care much for minorities in general and that of minority educational institutions in particular.
The right to admit students was clearly recognised by the court as part and parcel of minorities right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. In any case, it is an essential facet of university’s autonomy. Each university or institution has a right to emphasise some special areas of study. For instance, the Gandhi Medical College, Seva Gram, Vardha has a paper on Gandhian Studies in its test. Similar is the case with Armed Forces Medical College which tests a student in defense studies.
Autonomy
Even in the United States, it has been found in a number of surveys that mostly rich, white and politically powerful families’ children make it to the common tests. Thus there is an element of class as well in the CET proposal . In fact, the logic of a single test for engineering and medicine is itself subject to question. The new HRD minister, Mr Arjun Singh has himself allowed at least five admission tests for the management courses.
The UGC has quoted apex court’s decision to introduce CET to avoid multiplicity of tests but then the regulations themselves permit each state to conduct a separate test and thus 28 tests are still going to be there. If this is the case, one fails to understand how problem of multiple tests has been taken care of. As a matter of fact, the apex court has talked about CET for only professional/ technical colleges not universities. It is, indeed, disgusting that while the Supreme Court clearly gave a right to universities to conduct their own admission tests by holding that the merit may be determined either through a common CET conducted by the university concerned or the government followed by counselling, or on the basis of entrance test conducted by individual institutions, the UGC has conveniently ignored these noble observations.
AMU
’s opposition to the CET is, therefore, justified for a number of reasons. First, the apex court decisions are applicable to professional and technical institutions not universities. Secondly, AMU
has been given its autonomy and right to admit its students by an Act of Parliament. In fact Entry 63 of Union List of the Constitution explicitly mentions it as an institutional of national importance. Thirdly, AMU
is a minority university and the regulations say nothing about minority universities. Fourthly, AMU
has been conducting its own entrance tests on an all-India basis for various professional courses for more than 25 years in a most transparent manner so much so that Muslims rarely cross 50 per cent mark in medicine and other prestigious courses. In fact, unlike most universities in the country admission test results in AMU
are normally declared within 24 hours which speaks volumes for their fairness. Moreover, AMU
may be exempted from CET as per the court’s decision of 14 August, 2003.
It is ironical that instead of a committee headed by a High Court judge which as per the decision of court can decide exemption or inclusion, UGC and HRD Ministry have themselves decided that AMU
should join CET. Finally, as per the UGC Act, the job of UGC is to coordinate the institutions of higher education not compelling them into subordination.
Confidence
The court explicitly observed that any law or regulation that would put the educational institutions run by minorities at a disadvantage will have to be struck down. The idea of giving some special rights to the minorities is not to have a kind of a privileged or pampered section of population but to give to the minorities a sense of security and a feeling of confidence. The government should in fact encourage establishment of more and more minority educational institutions. If more and more Muslims go to institutions of modern education and not Madris (plural of Madrasa), Muslims may march towards modernism. It is due to the lack of farsightedness of the state governments of northern states that the problem assumes communal overtones.
In the southern states of Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala, one finds hundreds of minority professional/technical colleges. India’s dream of achieving the status of a developed country by 2020 cannot become a reality if its minorities in general and Muslims in particular remain uneducated. It is, indeed, the big national interest that is involved in the protection of minorities’ rights. UGC, the HRD ministry and AICTE must refrain from doing a disservice to this great plural nation.
The former chief justice, Mr Sikri, rightly observed, “In fact one may well compare our nation to a big Jumbo jet flying through turbulent weather to a golden destination. For this flight every section of the people must be galvanised together as firmly as the various parts of the frame. The strength of the frame is equal only to the strength of the weakest section of the frame. One little crack, i.e. a disgruntled minority, would force the jet to the ground till the crack is repaired”.
(Concluded)
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