08-13-2004, 01:20 AM
Govt to amend Constitution
Sanjay Singh/ New Delhi
It's the latest "secular" recipe from Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh - amend the Constitution to establish a commission exclusively to provide affiliation to minority educational institutions. To give further validity to these institutions, the affiliation would be routed through central universities and not through ordinary state universities.
This would effectively mean that such institutions would bypass the norms set by the University Grants Commission (UGC), the apex statutory body to regulate higher education. It could also make the role of the All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and Medical Council of India (MCI) redundant for institutes set up by the minorities.
The agenda paper for the meeting of the Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE), which concluded on Thursday, clearly mentioned it. Item no XV of the "Provisions in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) having a bearing on Education" says: "The UPA Government will amend the Constitution to establish that it will provide direct affiliation for minority professional institutions to central universities." The assertion - the "Government will amend" - is most definitive. The Government, it seems from the language, has dealt a fait accompli.
Education is listed in the Constitution in the Concurrent List and therefore, before the Human Resources Ministry embarks upon establishing the commission, it needs to amend the Constitution.
Item no XVI says: "The UPA will promote modern and technical education among all minority communities." As per constitutional provisions, minority is both religious and linguistic. There could be a problem if a group of Oriyas, or Malayalees, Telugus, Tamils, or Bengalis claims minority status in states other than its native place. Similarly, Hindi-speaking people in a district of Kerala could claim to be a minority. Religious groups of all kinds would start vying for the same status in all parts of the country, observed experts.
In this connection, BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu told The Pioneer: "Arjun Singh is pursuing his own agenda and the move is fraught with dangerous implications which the Government would find difficult to handle in future."
A section of legal and educational experts said: "If the Constitution is amended to this effect, it would open a pandora's box. As it is, there is a mushrooming of private professional institutions, most of which do not meet the norms of regulatory bodies.
"By doing this, the Government would encourage people of all hue and shade to claim that their institute belongs to the minority, or is religious or linguistic, and they could demand setting up of separate commissions for their sect or religion."
They felt that Mr Singh was making a serious attempt to "dilute the Supreme Court's ruling on minority institutions".
A majority of private medical and engineering colleges, which earned huge money through capitation fees, were vying to get the "minority institute" status, either on religious or linguistic lines. For example, colleges in the Delhi's NCR region are trying to get minority status claiming that Telegus and Tamils were a minority in their district. In Rajasthan, there are at least 30 minority professional institutes at present.
Sanjay Singh/ New Delhi
It's the latest "secular" recipe from Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh - amend the Constitution to establish a commission exclusively to provide affiliation to minority educational institutions. To give further validity to these institutions, the affiliation would be routed through central universities and not through ordinary state universities.
This would effectively mean that such institutions would bypass the norms set by the University Grants Commission (UGC), the apex statutory body to regulate higher education. It could also make the role of the All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) and Medical Council of India (MCI) redundant for institutes set up by the minorities.
The agenda paper for the meeting of the Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE), which concluded on Thursday, clearly mentioned it. Item no XV of the "Provisions in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) having a bearing on Education" says: "The UPA Government will amend the Constitution to establish that it will provide direct affiliation for minority professional institutions to central universities." The assertion - the "Government will amend" - is most definitive. The Government, it seems from the language, has dealt a fait accompli.
Education is listed in the Constitution in the Concurrent List and therefore, before the Human Resources Ministry embarks upon establishing the commission, it needs to amend the Constitution.
Item no XVI says: "The UPA will promote modern and technical education among all minority communities." As per constitutional provisions, minority is both religious and linguistic. There could be a problem if a group of Oriyas, or Malayalees, Telugus, Tamils, or Bengalis claims minority status in states other than its native place. Similarly, Hindi-speaking people in a district of Kerala could claim to be a minority. Religious groups of all kinds would start vying for the same status in all parts of the country, observed experts.
In this connection, BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu told The Pioneer: "Arjun Singh is pursuing his own agenda and the move is fraught with dangerous implications which the Government would find difficult to handle in future."
A section of legal and educational experts said: "If the Constitution is amended to this effect, it would open a pandora's box. As it is, there is a mushrooming of private professional institutions, most of which do not meet the norms of regulatory bodies.
"By doing this, the Government would encourage people of all hue and shade to claim that their institute belongs to the minority, or is religious or linguistic, and they could demand setting up of separate commissions for their sect or religion."
They felt that Mr Singh was making a serious attempt to "dilute the Supreme Court's ruling on minority institutions".
A majority of private medical and engineering colleges, which earned huge money through capitation fees, were vying to get the "minority institute" status, either on religious or linguistic lines. For example, colleges in the Delhi's NCR region are trying to get minority status claiming that Telegus and Tamils were a minority in their district. In Rajasthan, there are at least 30 minority professional institutes at present.