OPEN FORUM
New Delhi, 16 March 2006
Minority Affairs
WHY A SEPARATE MINISTRY?
By T.D. Jagadesan
The Common Minimum Programme of
the UPA indicates that the measures it is committed to introduce include
promotion of social harmony and welfare of minorities. The President’s address
to Parliament on February 16 too contains an account of what has been done and
is proposed to be done by the Government to achieve this objective. One of the steps taken by the Government
which it considered important enough to be included in the President’s address is the creation of a separate Ministry of
Minority Affairs in order to “focus concentrated attention on the problems of
all minorities.”
However, taking into account the
structure of the Government at the Centre and the division of powers between
the Centre and the States, a legitimate question that arises is whether such a
post in the Union Cabinet is likely to help in achieving the objectives
expected of it, or on the contrary, whether it will make the task more difficult.
The Constitution of India has
been very liberal in providing safeguards and guarantees for protecting the
interests of minorities. Article 25
which guarantees freedom of conscience and free profession,
practice and propagation of religion is a right for all citizens.
Similarly, Article 26 which
guarantees the right to establish and maintain institutions for religious and
charitable purposes and to manage religious affairs is also a right for all
religious denominations. However, these rights are important for minorities
because they ensure equal rights for all without any scope for discrimination
against minorities.
The Constitutional provisions of
importance to the minorities are Articles 29 and 30. Article 29 states that any section of citizens
resident in the territory
of India having a
distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to
conserve the same. Article 30 guarantees the right of minorities, whether based
on religion or language to establish and administer educational institutions of
their choice.
The fundamental rights enshrined
in the Constitution, including the special safeguards and guarantees given to
the minorities taken together assure
them that they will have equal rights, as all other citizens of the country
have and also the freedom to manage their own affairs in matters of their
religion and educational institutions.
No minority group in any other country can claim to those provided under
the Constitution.
However, while being satisfied
with constitutional rights, certain sections among the minority communities
feel that there has been denial of opportunities for their social and economic
development and that special measures of support from the Government are necessary to enable them to catch up with the other
advanced communities in the race for progress.
The main areas of concern for
these sections are security, access
to education and to employment. It is
obvious that on these issues the
situation would vary widely from one minority to another and even in the case
of the same minority group, from one State to another. Therefore, there can be no uniform approach
in handling the problems of minorities from one focal point in the Government.
A new development about communal
violence in recent years has been violence against Christian priests and places
of worship in certain parts of the country.
Fortunately, these have been isolated incidents so far, limited to two
or three States.
Whatever may be the scale or
frequency of communal violence, the authority which can handle such situations
instantly is the State Government which has the primary responsibility to
maintain peace. In serious situations of
communal violence, the Central Government can help the State Government by
deploying Central police forces, but the responsibility for this lies squarely
with the Union Home Ministry.
The Centre has been aware of the
need for a more pro-active role for dealing with grave incidents of communal
violence and for providing relief and rehabilitation assistance
to the victims of violence, and has already initiated legislation for investing
the Centre with additional powers for direct action.
One wonders what a Central
Ministry for Minority Affairs can do in handling such sensitive and complex problems.
At best it can act as a “pressure
point” for making the Home Ministry and the State Government to act, but such a
role is neither necessary nor
helpful for quick and effective action to deal with the problem.
Similar is the position regarding
access to education. The position of the minority communities
regarding educational progress and
opportunities is different with different minorities and States. For example,
for the Christian community the question of educational backwardness does not generally arise except in the case of
converts to Christianity from the socially and economically backward castes.
Poor education may be a problem
for the Muslim community in several States, but in a State like Kerala the
Muslims who constitute 24 per cent of the population, as per recent official
statistical data, do not suffer from any such problem because of the efforts of
the enlightened leaders of the community in Kerala to spread the message about the need for education among the members
of the community.
If any initiative from the Centre
is found necessary to help the
minorities regarding their educational problems, or to supplement the efforts
of the State governments, it is clearly the responsibility of the Ministry of
Human Resource Development, according to political pundits. But this Ministry also would not need any
“pressure” from another Ministry at
the Centre.
There is already an organisation
at the Central level, namely, the Minorities Commission,
functioning as a focal point of attention for the problems of minorities,
though its contribution to the welfare of minorities has not been much during
the last three decades of its existence. The Government has now initiated
action to give the Minorities Commission
a constitutional status with more powers and it is expected to play a more
important role in future.
There will be little that a
separate Ministry for Minority Affairs can do in addition to what the new
Minorities Commission can do with
its enhanced status and power. Traditionally, the Prime Ministers have always
been taking on direct responsibility for minority affairs and providing the
required direction to the concerned Ministries in this matter.
The Prime Minister alone has the
authority under our scheme of administration to undertake such a role. A separate
Ministry for Minority Affairs may prove to be a disappointment to both the Ministry
and the minorities because of the obvious fact that it will be a Ministry with
responsibility, but not the power. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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