People's Democracy

THE large mushrooming of private professional educational institutions in the country, in the background of the steady withdrawal of the State from the field of higher education, has been a cause of serious concern leading to many struggles and conflicts. The unbridled privatisation and commercia-lisation of higher education in the era of economic policies of liberalisation has virtually reduced higher education into a commodity that can be bought in the market like anything else! In the light of this, there has been a growing demand that this should be halted in the interests of maintaining education as a right for the people and not as a privilege of the rich.

Under these circumstances, the CPI(M) has been in the forefront demanding that such private institutions be brought under social control. While arguing that social control need not necessarily mean governmental control, the CPI(M) had suggested that a central legislation be enacted to enable the state governments to adopt necessary mechanisms that could exercise such control. This should cover the following areas: a) The admissions policy followed by these institutions must be consistent with the national policy including reservations for SC/ST and OBCs; b) The fee structure and the salary structure should not be very much divergent from the normal levels; and c) The content of the courses must be in conformity with the nationally prescribed syllabus.

However, while the struggle on this issue is on, the Supreme Court in the famous Inamdar case had ruled that according to the existing Constitutional provisions, private unaided educational institutions are under no obligation to provide reservations. The Supreme Court, itself, had suggested that suitable enactment be made to overcome this lacuna.

Greater access to higher education, including professional education, to students belonging to SCs, STs and OBCs can be provided in educational institutions run by the government or aided by the government under clause 4 of Article 15 of the Indian Constitution. There is no provision for private unaided institutions however. The amendment brought forward by the gov-ernment is aimed at overcoming this lacuna.

This effort was sought to be obstructed, however, by the BJP in both the houses of the parliament on the grounds that the minority institutions should also be brought under this ambit. However, clause I of Article 30 provides the right to all minorities, both linguistic and religious, to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. The BJP’s demand, therefore, cannot be accommodated without amending Article 30. In its classic pretentious manner, the BJP itself is not demanding to disturb Article 30 but by opposing the present amendment, it is seeking to achieve the same, i.e., not give any deservedly special rights to the minorities. Its tactics on this occasion are similar to what it adopted when the women’s reservation bill was introduced in the parliament nearly a decade ago. By raising the issue of providing OBC reservations within the women’s reservations (raised first by Uma Bharti in the Lok Sabha then), the BJP has succeeded in allowing this bill to be stalled for over a decade.

At the same time, while it is necessary to protect the right of the minorities, it is also necessary that this provision is not misused for further commercia-lisation of education garnering undue profits by denying reservations. Under these circumstances, it must be recognised that this amendment is an enabling clause, i.e., on this basis the state legislatures will have to enact appropriate legislation corresponding to the realities in their state. In doing so, they must make provisions to ensure that such misuse cannot be allowed by defining the institutions which qualify for the protection granted under Article 30. This amendment, therefore, is to enable both the government and the parliament to make appropriate laws for the purposes mentioned above.

In the interests of protecting the much required and needed reservations for the SC/ST and OBCs in education, at a time when these are being severely eroded, this amendment must receive support to advance the interests of social justice in the country.