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| Minority rights — and wrongs | | |
V.R. Krishna Iyer
The provision to treat the minorities as a favoured category is not to hold them as a privileged class over the majority.
NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY and fundamental rights are supreme political commandments; constitutional commands and legislative directives come only next in legal status. Weighing values competitively, whether they be the `minorities,' the `weaker sections,' or the meritorious among the minority communities, the merit criterion claims priority in admissions to professional or higher educational courses.
This comparative estimate is based on an evaluation from a national perspective. Nation first, the rest next. Nothing is above a nation's supremacy of genius.
The best of the country may be from among the poorest or socially suppressed. Democracy gains authenticity only if the minority has a just opportunity to play its creative, uninhibited part — in the shape of fair opportunity for dynamic actions, development and cultural advance through pluralistic higher education. Those handicapped in terms of their numbers or social disability, have the right to special concern. It is their land, and equalisation through particular fillip shall lift them to equality. This process is equalisation to attain equality. Social, economic and political justice considerations must govern the weaker and poorer within the minorities and other handicapped sectors.
What is a `minority' in the field of education? It is not an individual adventurist's business but of one who invests in the `industry.' Is professional education a lucrative minority business because it is run by a member of a minority community by birth and without any other consideration? It is a kind of business, with books, classes and examinations as wares. The focus is not on the advancement of the minority community handicapped in education. It must be the obligation of the Government to examine the de facto functional objective of the institution, beyond considering whether it is run by a member of a so-called minority.
Unless the primary and paramount purpose of an institution is to devote all its resources for the particular community's advance, the special privileges of autonomy are negatived. Article 30 is conditioned by the special objective of the community constituting the minority becoming the focus of the institution. It is open to the state not to treat a college as a minority institution merely because its founder belongs to a certain sect or faith — if it makes money by admitting non-minority students on a large scale by exploiting its minority status. A sprinkling of non-minority pupils is welcome as a competitive or fraternal fraction.
Again, they have to accept the principle of equality within the ranks of the minority. So admissions should not be at random or guided by favouritism, nepotism or monetary considerations. Within the `minority,' selection according to merit and other recognised preferential criteria must prevail. If, on reasonable grounds, some non-minority students are admitted, no fee discrimination or market price factor should come into play. `Minority' as a label cannot be a basis for looting. Any excesses should be punitively prevented by the Government. Does not the state have the integrity to arrest the vice without being scared by religious panic?
Minority teachers have to be paid reasonable salaries. Then alone will they promote good education. Bribes should not be collected for their appointment.
The provision to treat the minorities as a favoured category is not to hold them as a privileged class over the majority. Minority hegemony can be dangerous too. The nation is one and the minority or the weaker sections but a part of it.
The minority is not a superior nation within the Republic. Pseudo-minority institutions cannot get away with it by means of formal features and literal compliance.
Equality (provided under Article 14), a fundamental right, is a mandate forbidding abuse by leaders within the group leaving the weaker ones ever the victims. The purpose of the percentage formula is to equalise and thereby gain equality, not to create divisive communalism. The minority and majority communities should have high quality education as a fundamental duty (under Article 51 A).
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