Editorial on violence against Christians

 Oppression of minorities by a dominant group makes nonsense of equality in every sphere

A simple request may, at times, allude to a complicated reality. Christian leaders across the Northeast urged fellow Christians last week to vote with a clear and informed conscience ahead of the assembly elections in Meghalaya and Nagaland. This would mean upholding the principles of truth, justice and fairness taught by their faith and refusing to be allured by false promises to remain alert to constitutional freedoms and elect leaders committed to the unity and good of the community and the nation. The exhortation came against a background of growing violence against the community, disruption of worship and desecration of churches, and eviction of tribal families under the guise of clearing encroachments on forest land. This gathering could be regarded as a forerunner to the protest of some 2,000 members of the community along with bishops and other leaders in Delhi last Sunday against the hate speeches, humiliation, violence, undue arrests in so-called ‘anti-conversion’ drives, eviction — in Chhattisgarh — upon refusal to convert to the majority religion and other forms of oppression that the community faces.

Attacks against the community rose by 400% from 2014 to 2022. This could not have happened without State blindness, if not indulgence. Uttar Pradesh heads the six states with the greatest number of targeted incidents, as in most cases of faith-based or gender violence. The prime minister’s endorsement of UP’s chief minister during the 2022 assembly elections after the latter’s first five years of violence-inducing reign was visibly full-hearted. The Christian community will be sending a memorandum to the president of India regarding the growing violence against it and ask for a national redressal commission to address the fallout. The community’s protest and the memorandum are unmistakeable indicators of the sickening of India’s democracy and secular spirit. They suggest that a huge number of India’s citizens have overcome their polite or fearful silence to speak up against active hate and unpunished crimes. That their individual predicaments did not matter is undemocratic. Oppression of minorities by a dominant group makes nonsense of equality in every sphere. Turning to the president is symbolic: one segment of citizens wishes to show its loss of trust in the ruling dispensation.

Source: Telegraph, 23/02/23

Across India, minorities are overrepresented in jails

 

Christophe Jaffrelot, Maulik Saini write: This is a clear indication of the communalisation of the police that tends to prevail, irrespective of the ideology of the ruling party.

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reports show that in almost all the states of the Indian Union, irrespective of the party holding office, religious minorities are over-represented in jail.

Muslims are a case in point. During UPA II, they represented 21 to 22.5 per cent of the “undertrials” and under NDA II (from 2014 to 2019) 19 to 21 per cent. But law and order being a state subject, this question needs to be scrutinised at this level. Muslims are (and were) over-represented among jail inmates in almost all the Hindu-majority states: In Assam, Muslims, according to the 2011 census, are 34 per cent of the population and they represent 43 to 47.5 per cent of the “undertrials”; in Gujarat, Muslims are 10 per cent of the population and since 2017, they have been about 25 to 27 per cent of the “undertrials” (they were 24 per cent in 2013); in Karnataka, Muslims are 13 per cent of the population and they are 19 to 22 per cent of the “undertrials” since 2018 (they were 13 to 14 per cent in 2013-2017); in Kerala, they are 26.5 per cent of the population and 28 to 30 per cent of the “undertrials”; in MP, Muslims are 6.5 per cent and 12 to 15 per cent of the “undertrials” since 2017 (they were already 13 per cent in 2013); in Maharashtra, Muslims are 11.5 per cent of the population, and their percentage among the “undertrials” peaked at 36.5 per cent in 2012 (it went back to its 2009 level, 30 per cent, in 2015); in Rajasthan, Muslims are 9 per cent and they represent 18 to 23 per cent of the “undertrials” (they were 17 per cent in 2013); in Tamil Nadu, Muslims are 6 per cent, and 11 per cent of the undertrials since 2017; in Uttar Pradesh, Muslims are 19 per cent of the population, and 26 to 29 per cent of the “undertrials” since 2012; in West Bengal, Muslims are 27 per cent of the population, and they represent more than 36 per cent of the “undertrials” since 2017. The only major state where Muslims have been under-represented among the “undertrials” is Bihar, where the latter are 15 per cent when Muslims constitute 17 per cent of the population.

The over-representation of Muslims in jail is to some extent a reflection of the communal bias of the police. In many states, the percentage of “convicted” Muslims is much lower than their percentage amongst “undertrials”. Take 2019: The percentage drops from 47.5 per cent of “undertrials” to 39.6 per cent of “convicted” in Assam; from 19.5 to 14 per cent in Karnataka; from 31 to 27 per cent in Kerala; from 12 to 10 per cent in MP; from 30 to 20 per cent in Maharashtra; from 18 to 17 per cent in Rajasthan; from 29 to 22 per cent in UP. These data show that when the judiciary, at last, take up the cases of many “undertrials”. the judges realise that there is not enough evidence and they release people who have spent a lot of time — years sometimes — incarcerated for no reason. The police and judiciary are, therefore, somewhat at cross purpose in many states, to such an extent that the share of the convicts is not much larger than the share of the Muslims in many states, including Karnataka, Kerala and even UP. At the pan-Indian level, the proportion of Muslim convicts was 2.5 percentage points above the percentage of Muslims in the population, according to the 2011 census (14.2 per cent).

The police and the judiciary are on the same page in only a few states. The percentage of Muslim “convicts” is equal to the percentage of Muslim “undertrials” in only one state, Tamil Nadu (11 per cents) and the former are more than the latter in only three states: Gujarat (31 against 25 per cent), West Bengal (38 against 37 per cent) and Bihar (18 against 15 per cent).

If Muslims are overrepresented among jail inmates in most of the Hindu-majority states — among “undertrials” more than “convicts” — Hindus are overrepresented among jail inmates in the only Muslim majority state, Jammu and Kashmir. In this state, where Hindus represent 28.5 per cent of the population, they were 34 to 39.5 per cent of the “undertrials” between 2014 and 2019 and were even more over-represented among convicts — between 42.6 and 50.5 per cent. Muslims, 68.3 per cent of the state population, followed the opposite trajectory: Their percentage of “undertrials” (between 60.5 per cent and 56 per cent) was much higher than their share of the “convicts” (between 53 and 43 per cent). Similarly, in Punjab, Sikhs — 58 per cent of the population — tend to be under-represented among the undertrials at 51 per cent in 2019 and 52 per cent in 2018, whereas Muslims (2 per cent of the population) are over-represented at 4-5 per cent.

These detailed figures suggest something very disturbing: In almost every state, the minorities are over-represented in jail and the majorities are under-represented. This is a clear indication of the communalisation of the police that tends to prevail, irrespective of the ideology of the ruling party. One of the only ways to correct this state of affairs could be the recruitment and promotion of policemen from minority communities. Indeed, Muslims are under-represented among the IPS officers, except in J&K.

Written by Christophe Jaffrelot , Maulik Saini 

Source: Indian Express, 10/12/21

Maharashtra first state to award Jews ‘minority’ status

One of India’s smallest religious communities, the Jews, has now got an official identity in Maharashtra. Ending their decades old struggle, the Jews were finally conferred with the ‘minority’ status by the state cabinet on Tuesday.

Maharashtra is the first state to categorise Jews as a minority group. Of the estimated 5,000 Jews in India, around 4,300 live in the state, concentrated largely in Mumbai, Thane and Raigad district.

The government’s move means the community is now eligible for state schemes for religious minority groups, including scholarships for students and grants to educational institutes run by community members, among others.

However, more than the government schemes, the community is excited about other factors. Documents registering births, deaths and marriages of Jews did not carry their religion, instead categorising them as ‘others’, which will now change.

“Even the census didn’t count us as ‘Jews’, as a result of which, there are no official figures for our community. Our internal estimates show we are only 5,000 members, which makes us a miniscule, microscopic minority,” said Ezra Moses, the secretary of the Indian Jewish Federation.

The other benefit, Moses said, will be the community will get full subsidy from the government to visit Jerusalem, the Israeli capital, for pilgrimages.

With their major demand accepted, the community hopes the government will pay heed to another request they had made. “The holiest day for the community, Yom Kippur, is generally when our kids have examinations. Families can’t celebrate this day because of that. With this official tag for us, I hope the government considers making the day an optional holiday,” he said.

Another community member, David Talegaonkar, who is on the trust which runs one of the three community-run educational institutes, the Sir Elly Kardoorie High School, welcomed the decision. “We receive a lot of applications from Jewish students who don’t have the means to support their education. This tag means they can have access to government scholarships.”

The Maharashtra government had, in 2006, recognised six minority groups – Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains.

Source: Hindustan Times, 22-06-2016

Defining minorities and their uses in India requires a change of thought

Has India always, or at least since 1947, had a ministry of minority affairs? At any rate, it is probably a necessity in the present government. Since the BJP came to form the government with a healthy mandate, there have been questions about the security of, and social and political equality for, the minorities and wholehearted commitment to these from our rulers and the forces they control.

To be fair, the questions have only arisen in the context of the Muslims and Christians of India. Those who favour and follow what is known as the Hindutva ideology, or at least the extremists of this tendency, stand accused of attempts to characterise Muslim Indians as not quite full-fledged citizens. I am trying to choose my words carefully.

The killing of an individual suspected of storing beef in his refrigerator, the murder of scholars who are in any way critical of the emerging ideology, the attack on Muslim actors who have made determinedly sensible and patriotic remarks, the battles on university campuses which characterise perfectly legitimate protest and obey the tenets of free speech as treason — these and other sinister developments might merit stronger language.

I am sure all the members of the present government don’t support in any sense this tendency. There is Najma Heptullah, the minister for minority affairs, who surely dissents from it. I think one of her outstanding tasks is to redefine the brief of her ministry. Indian Muslims should not be seen as the ‘minority community’. Here’s where arithmetic and political expression come into conflict. Yes, there are fewer Muslims in India than there are Hindus and that should give them the status, not of a minority but of a ‘smaller majority’. It may seem like a semantic quibble but from such quibbles, policies of empowerment of social justice should flow.

Read| Sufi meet to Time interview: Six times Modi spoke on freedom of faith

The real minorities of India, and I am sure Najmaji has very many definitions and categories of them, are, by religion, the Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jews and Zoroastrians.

The Hindutvaterrati have attacked Christian missionaries in very vicious and even murderous ways, but seem to have left the rest of us minorities (I write as a Parsi of Zoroastrian descent) alone and even on occasion celebrated them.

I don’t suppose the ministry of minority affairs has any business with the question of banning ‘Sikh Jokes’, for which there is an individual case initiated in the courts. It doesn’t seem to have attracted the support of millions of Sikhs, who perhaps, as the late Khushwant Singh did, tolerate the jokes and see laughing at oneself as a sign of cultural maturity.

If Sikhs were the only minority to suffer such jokes, the objection would carry more weight. Just as Americans have jokes about Poles and the British have jokes about the Irish, Pakistanis have funny stories about Bangladeshis, Indians have jokes about Bengalis, Malayalis, Biharis and Parsis.

As a member of the Parsi community, I quite enjoy Parsi jokes, especially those perpetrated by one of us. A Parsi journalist, asked about why our numbers were dwindling, said, “Because half of us are gay and the other half are statues in Mumbai!”

And then there was the one about a gathering of Parsi gentlemen where one says to the other “my wife is pregnant,” to which the reply is “Oh dear, I’m so sorry, whom do you suspect?”

I don’t think any Parsi will go to court about these or indeed appeal to Heptullah to initiate a parliamentary bill banning them. In fact, I gather that Heptullah is quite supportive of this particular minority community and her ministry has sponsored an exhibition called The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination in the National Museum in New Delhi.

The exhibition opens today and is open till May 31. The reason I’ve already seen it is because it was curated by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of University of London and was shown in London in 2013. It is now on the first step of what its originators call an ‘International Tour’.

Accompanying the exhibition will be an extension, which wasn’t a part of the display at SOAS. It features, among other things, a recent Bollywood film called Ferrari ki Sawaari. The title doesn’t give away the film’s connection with the history of Zoroastrianism, but I’m sure its selectors have some critical criteria which relates this 2012 Bollywood comedy to the theme of The Everlasting Flame.

The film, directed, acted (with the exception of Zoroastrian Boman Irani) and produced by non-Parsis tells the story of a Parsi father determined to get his son to play cricket at Lord’s. The determination leads him to steal the Ferrari of Sachin Tendulkar and the car’s journey introduces a gaggle of comic characters in set-piece situations and some genuine drama.

The film was a critical and financial success and may delight its audiences, but the only connection that one can see to 3,000 years of Zoroastrian history is that Parsis have evolved from being the Achaemenid rulers of the known world and the Sassanian conquerors of Rome to being good fun for Bollywood audiences. We have our uses.

(Farrukh Dhondy is an author, screenplay writer and columnist based in London. The views expressed are personal)

Source: Hindustan Times,19-03-2016

$50 million loan to fund education of minorities

The Union government and the World Bank signed a $50-million credit agreement for a project aimed at helping young people from minority communities complete their education and improve their employment opportunities.

“The Nai Manzil Scheme is designed as an integrated education and training programme that provides youth from minority communities skills needed for different tasks in a rapidly changing world. Interventions under this project will support the Nai Manzil Scheme in improving the employability and performance of minority youth in the labour market,” Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, said.

The agreement was signed by Mr. Kumar and Michael Haney, the World Bank’s Operations Adviser in India.

“India’s demographic dividend can be harnessed only if all young people from all sections of society are equipped with the education and skills needed to make them productive members of the economy,” Mr. Haney said.

Around 20 per cent of those between 17 and 35 years of age from minority groups such as Muslims, Parsees, Jains, Buddhists, Christians, and Sikhs are out of the labour force, according to the World Bank.

Keywords: World Bank, Nai Manzil Scheme

Source: The Hindu, 1-1-2016

Ode to the happy country

One cannot enjoy wealth or social standing if some members of the society remain unhappy. The economy, which is a network of material relations, can always be revived, but the society, which is a network of human relations based on trust, cannot be repaired easily once damaged

In October 1959, when Jawaharlal Nehru had gone to Nagarjunasagar to inaugurate a dam, a worker is said to have come up to him and said in Telugu: “Here you have lighted a lamp.’’ Nehru was so moved that he adopted this as the test of a person’s work and wrote, “Do we, in the course of our lives, light lamps, or do we snuff out the lamps or candles that exist?” There are many versions of this episode. I have chosen to use the one by the historian Rudrangshu Mukherjee. But whichever version you may use, you will agree that this is an intuitive compass by which to conduct ourselves. As we snuff out lamps, we fill our world with darkness.

Pulapre Balakrishnan

Almost half a century before the stirrings of a dam in India, the metaphor of a lamp had been used by a leader on another continent. In August 1914, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, remarked to a friend, “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time.” This proved to be valid as a premonition of the approaching First World War, perceptive of the consequences of its savagery. These included the rise of Hitler and yet another world war.

We may want to reflect seriously on whether rising and unchecked intolerance in Indiatoday is snuffing out the lamps across our own country. More than a month ago, at Dadri, not far from Delhi, a man was lynched by his neighbours for allegedly storing beef in his home. Earlier, rationalists and historians who had dared to express scepticism of certain ideologies had been murdered. Over the past few years, violence against Dalits, writers and academics has taken place with nary a response from elected governments.

Protecting the rights of the minorities

However, the statements of Prime Minister Modi after Dadri are worse than none at all. He is reported to have said that Hindus and Muslims must fight poverty and not each other. This is disingenuous, for at Dadri an innocent Muslim had been killed by a mob of Hindus. There is no numerical parity between the Hindus and the Muslims, or between the Hindus and people belonging to any other minority community in India. So, the onus is on the Hindu population of India to make the minorities feel secure in this country. As for the Government of India, to fail to protect the life and liberty of its minorities amounts to a craven abdication of a mandate to govern.

Into the mix has been thrown the observation by Moody’s Analytics, that India’s growth prospects are threatened by social conflict. There is also the trope that calls for peace on grounds that we are being watched by potential overseas investors. This is odd, as we need to maintain social harmony for its own sake, to save our way of life. And, in any case, while a growing economy is absolutely essential to improve our living conditions, a cohesive society may be even more important.

A unique understanding of the value of social cohesion is contained in an observation made by the grand old man of Indian industry. J.R.D. Tata’s biographer R.M. Lala quotes him as saying: “An American economist has predicted that in the next century India will be an economic superpower. I do not want India to be an economic superpower. I want India to be a happy country.” These words resonate today when abdication of governance means that we could end up living in an unhappy country with a dynamic economy.

The point is that one cannot enjoy one’s hard-earned wealth or social standing if some members of the society one is part of remain unhappy. If violence against minorities of every hue were to continue, we would have a significant section of India alienated from the mainstream. The economy, which is a network of material relations, can always be revived, but the society, which is a network of human relations based on trust, may not be repaired so easily once damaged.

While events of the past year or so can leave us without the slightest doubt that the sections who feel most threatened in India today are our Muslim and Christian compatriots, historically, there have been other groups that have long felt marginalised.

Different minorities, diverse rights

While communal fascism threatening India’s religious minorities has received the attention of its intelligentsia, the devastating influence of patriarchy has not done so. Outrage in the ‘Nirbhaya’ case has not led to a focussed attention on the subjugation of women in Indian society even outside of the discrimination embedded in personal laws. Moreover, personal law itself has been exclusively interpreted as pertaining only to marriage.

Sexual freedom is never addressed, thus perpetrating an incredible rights discourse cleansed of the non-heteronormative ‘other’. Majoritarianism is enshrined in Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which disenfranchises India’s gay/lesbian people. Originally legislated by a colonial power guided by Judaeo-Christian values, it has recently been upheld by the Supreme Court petitioned by a coalition representing all the indigenous religions of the country. Sadly, religious reaction won the day, signifying that some Indians demand freedoms for themselves but are unwilling to extend them to others.

Mainstreaming the marginalised

India’s political class, happy to resort to ordinances in the normal course, has revealed its pusillanimity by not jettisoning the Section. It is clear that, as pronounced on another occasion by some judges of the Supreme Court itself, we have to stamp out religion from civil laws if India is to call itself secular. The beef ban, triple talaq and Section 377 are all underpinned by religion.

If we are to live in a happy country, both the social and economic aspects of public policy would require overhauling. Of social policy first. It must exude zero tolerance of intolerance. Instead it has mostly been too quick to mollify the intolerant. But keeping the goons in check, though necessary, is yet negative in its orientation. Social policy must be geared to enabling those on the margins to rise to claim their rightful place.

The religious minorities should be made to feel free to pursue their own way of life so long as it does not clash with the provisions of the Constitution. Historically disempowered Dalits should be equipped with capabilities to participate as equal members of society. The sexual minorities, by which is meant those from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community, should be free to pursue their natural proclivities without harming others. And women need to be brought into the mainstream of governance.

Gandhi was far ahead of the other nationalists in pursuing equality for women but his historic initiative petered out after independence. However, in matters social we cannot leave it to the state to advance the cause of peace. India is fortunate to have a civil society populated by innumerable cultural and educational institutions. Though often beneficiaries of public largesse, some even enjoying the privilege of minority status, they have not always felt it necessary to rise to defend freedom of speech and expression. We would have to retrofit these as fora for the promotion of mutual understanding and citizenship.

When we come to the economic aspect of public policy, the answers to what is needed to make India a happy country are relatively clear-cut and somewhat easier to implement. By now it is close to 25 years since a significant change in the policy regime was initiated. Unquestionably, there have been rewards. We have grown faster and are right now among the world’s fastest-growing economes. Most importantly, having been driven to reform following a balance of payments crisis, the economy has clocked the longest period without facing external stress since 1947.

However, some Indians have done better than others. Rural India shows signs of distress. Urban India is not a happy space as the infrastructure lags way behind the need for it. It is not clear that we are addressing these issues with the seriousness that they deserve. In constantly turning to the rest of the world, the government seems to be suggesting that there is some wisdom lying beyond India’s shores, to be picked up free to fix India’s future. This is a delusion. From social harmony to sanitation, we should now focus on public goods, realising fully well that this is not going to be provided by foreign investors. By bringing us all together, public goods help us see that beneath our imagined identities we are the same.

(The author teaches economics at Ashoka University, Rai, Haryana.)

Keywords: Intolerance, Religious intolerance, minority, Beef ban, LGBT community, Sexual minorities, freedom of speech and expression, world’s fastest-growing economy, 'Nirbhaya’ case, Moody’s Analytics, Dadri lynching

Source: The Hindu, 12-11-2015

Jan 02 2015 : The Economic Times (Delhi)

Hindustan's 80% Minority

Abheek Barman





FOLK THEOREM There's no surprise in Indian politics' latest lurch towards communalism

In the 2001 census returns, people who called themselves `Hindus' were a little more than 80% of the population of India.Yet, since May when the BJP came to power, the only thing its parent, the RSS, wants is to convert Muslims, Christians, Jews -and anyone else in the 20% -to Hinduism.
So now, we have mass conversion campaigns, turning Indian politics into a pressure cooker of communal rhetoric. Parliament is paralysed.Reforms are stalled. Those who imagined that Narendra Modi would push development, not sectarianism, are pulling their hair out.
Spare your scalp. This chronicle was foretold more than 85 years ago when the bizarre theories that fuel the RSS and its allies took shape.Many assumptions based on prejudice and a warped telling of history underlie this.
One is about how Muslim `invaders' came to India and converted Hindus to Islam at the point of the sword.If true, this would imply parts of the subcontinent ruled by the sultanates and the Mughal empire, based largely out of Delhi, would have the maximum number of converts to Islam.
In an influential paper published in 1985, the American historian Richard M Eaton showed that exactly the opposite was true. Looking at data from 1200 to pre-Partition India, he found that the areas of the subcontinent that had the maximum number of Muslims were places beyond the pale of Delhi's `Islamic' administration; and where Delhi had maximum control, the number of Muslims was the least.
The most Islamised places were Balochistan, the northwest areas, western Punjab, greater Bengal, and coastal areas on the western peninsula from Gujarat to Kerala. The heart of Sultanate and Mughal administration, from Rajasthan in the west to Gangetic Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, were the least Islamised areas.
Currency Converter
The northwest, western Punjab and greater Bengal were never `Hinduised' in any meaningful way . They took easily to Islam when, in the west, Iranian and Turkic folks brought farm innovations like the Persian wheel to convert the kinetic energy of water for other uses, vastly boosting yields and incomes. In the east, as the course of the Ganga shifted from western to eastern Bengal, fertility improved, and local Sufi saints guided folks to better methods of cultivation and incomes. Indeed, even today , farm productivity in Bangladesh is better than in West Bengal.
But the biggest integrator with Islam was commerce. The landlocked west and parts of east Bengal got connected with land trade routes that stretched from China to Europe.
Many of these traders spoke Arabic or Persian, and we imbibed much from them. The peninsular region absorbed Islam through maritime trade across the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean. You didn't need a sword to convert. The plough and profits were enough. So, how did plough and profit yield to toxic Hindutva? Sometime in the 1920s, an upper caste, English-educa ted Maharashtrian decided that Hin dus had had enough of `foreign' rule.
His solution: get rid of the Muslims, Christians and all non-Hindus and expand ` Aryan' supremacy globally .
He had tried to kill a Briton in En gland, was captured, spent time in jail and wrote the Bible of the RSS.
He argued that long ago, every race in the world was inferior to Hindus, who were originally Aryan super men from a land of seven rivers and invented everything worth knowing, presumably with the exception of in stant coffee and Google.
This knowledge they exported to the West, and forgot all about it. So, they were unprepared when the West turned everything back on us.
Turning Full Circle
Now, it was payback time. Kick all infidels out or turn them into Hindus, if necessary , at the point of a trishul.This book, published in 1923, was Hindutva. Its author was Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, or as the RSS calls him, `Veer' -brave -Savarkar. One of the few people who took him seriously was a Greek-French woman called Maximiani Portas, or Savitri Devi, as she called herself.She exported Savarkar's ideas to Bengal and to Adolf Hitler, no less. But Savarkar couldn't live up to his lofty ideals or his `Veer' epithet. He crawled before his captors to get out of jail and never took part in the Independence movement.
To get out of the slammer, he wrote, “If the government in their manifold beneficence and mercy release me, I for one cannot but be the staunchest advocate of constitutional progress and loyalty to the English government.... My conversion to the constitutional line would bring back all those misled young men in India and abroad who were once looking up to me as their guide.... The Mighty alone can afford to be merciful and, therefore, where else can the prodigal son return but to the parental doors of the government.“
Savarkar, the fountainhead of Hindu supremacism, bartered his beliefs for personal freedom. Today , his followers indulge in doublespeak about development and demagoguery .

Current Challenges are Accessibility, Quality and Equality’

It is only through education that minorities can join the mainstream, believes Justice M S A Siddiqui, Chairman, National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions. In an interview to ENN, he says that the salvation of minority communities lies in acquiring strong knowledge economies powered by information technology, innovation and education

It has been a decade since the National Commission for National Minority Educational Institutions was established. Was the mandate of safeguarding the educational rights of the minorities a challenge? What are the achievements so far?

The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act 2004 was established for safeguarding the educational rights of minorities enshrined in the Article 30 (1) of the Constitution. This Act has created a new dispensation for expeditious disposal of cases relating to grant of affiliation by the affiliating universities, grant of minority status, certificates to minority educational institutions, violations and deprivations of educational rights of minorities enshrined in Article 30 (1) of the Constitution. This Commission has been vested with judicial powers and the authority to adjudicate all matters enumerated under the Act without being bogged down by the technicalities of the code of civil procedure. This Commission has successfully achieved its objectives. We have issued approximately 10,000 minority status certificates to minority educational institutions. We have also made certain recommendations to the state governments concerned for safeguarding the educational rights of minorities guaranteed under the Constitution. Some of the state governments have assured us that orders passed by this Commission shall be implemented. This Commission has created a sense of confidence among the minorities about protection of their constitutional rights.

What are the benefits that an institution can avail after getting minority status under the NCMEI?

In a landmark judgment rendered by the Supreme Court in T M A Pai Foundation versus State of Karnataka, the Supreme Court has interpreted the expression ‘administer’. They have held that this expression, that they can also administer educational institutions of their choice, comprises the following rights:
the Right to Education Act does not ap- The first right is that a minority educational institute can constitute its own governing body or managing committee without any interference from the government. Secondly, a minority educational institution can raise a reasonable fee structure for its institution. The third right, which is a very important one, is that a minority educational institution can select and appoint teaching and non-teaching staff of its institution, subject to the condition that the qualification of eligibility therefore shall be prescribed by the government. That is the only area of interference and that too is in the interest of academic excellence, which is permissible according to the said judgment of the Supreme Court. The fourth is that they can admit 100 per cent students from their own community. But if the institution is receiving any financial aid from the state, then Article 29(2) obligates it to admit non-minority students also to a reasonable extent. The fifth right is that they can take disciplinary action against any member of their staff. So, these are the benefits which are guaranteed to a minority institution. In addition, the Supreme Court has recently held that the Right to Education Act does not apply to minority educational institutions governed under Article 30 (1) of the Constitution. A minority educational institution is also exempted from the policy of reservation in admission and employment. So, these are the benefits which a minority educational institution is entitled to, provided it has been declared so either by the legislature, the Parliament, the central or state govern- ments or by this Commission. Except them, there is no authority to declare a minority educational institution.

“This Commission has successfully achieved its objectives. We have issued approximately 10,000 minority status certificates to minority educational institutions”

So far as the state of UP is concerned, a division bench of the Allahabad High Court has held that the state government does not have the power to declare a minority institution as a minority educational institution because that jurisdiction rests with the Civil court. Now, this Commission is a quasi-judicial body and it enjoys all trappings of a court. Therefore, this Commission is competent to declare and determine the minority status of a minority institution. These benefits are available only if the institution has been declared as a minority educational institution. If a member of the minority community has established an institution, it cannot be presumed that it is a minority educational institution unless it has been declared so by the competent authority. Then what are the indicia of proof for getting a minority educational institution status? First is that it must be established by one of the members of the notified minority communities. Six communities have been notified as a minority community – Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, Buddhists and Jains. Now, these institutions are established either by a society or by a trust. The Supreme Court has held that the Memorandum of Association of the Society or the Deed of Trust must reflect that the beneficiaries of the institution are members of that community which has established it. If that does not reflect, then the institution will be treated as a secular institution and not a minority institution.

Which, according to you, are the current challenge areas that need immediate attention?

The current challenges are accessibility, quality and equality. The Muslim community, according to the Sachar Committee, is virtually scratching the bottom of the educational barrel of the country. So, they need special attention because they can join the mainstream only through education. I have been telling the minorities that our salvation lies in acquiring the strong knowledge economies powered by information technology, innovation and education. Now, due to financial crunch, the Muslim community has no access to higher education. The need of the hour is enhancement of quality in education. In some southern states, the Muslim community has established good institutions. But, in other parts of the country, their educational institutions are found lacking in quality. Minorities should have access to quality education and equal opportunities must be available to them to get the benefits of quality education.
As far as the Centre and state governments are concerned, they are actually trying to help the minorities in general, and Muslims in particular, to improve their quality of education. Recently, in the Presidential Address, you may have noted that the government wants to modernise Madrasa education. It should be taken to be as the government intends to introduce modern education in Madrasas because a Madrasa cannot be modernised. Only modern education like computers, mathematics and science labs can be introduced. Both the Centre and state governments are very positive in their approach in this regard 

Source .http://digitallearning.eletsonline.com/2014/08/current-challenges-are-accessibility-quality-and-equality

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