While the legality of the decision to grant Jamia Millia Islamia the status of a minority institution is yet to be tested — there are several intricacies involved in the process — what is jarring is that a Central university in a secular country such as ours should have a communal colour. Such institutions are symbols of an educational system that does not discriminate between religions and offers equal opportunities to all students, regardless of their caste, creed or faith. Now, because of an order by the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, Jamia Millia Islamia will have to do away with reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and offer priority admission to students belonging to the Muslim community. Clearly, this is not just a discriminatory step but also a move that will deny a level playing field to deserving students. The arguments put forth by the NCMEI and supporters of its decision that Jamia Millia Islamia always had a minority character and that it had been established for the stated purpose of imparting education to Muslims, does not hold water in the present circumstances. Nor does the assertion that since Jamia Millia Islamia existed even before the Constitution came into place, it clears the path to declare it a minority institution have any credibility. Simply because some organisation was created before the Constitution came into being is no reason for it to be above the Constitution. Jamia Millia Islamia may have been established to promote education among Muslims, but those were different times when the need to have such educational bodies was deeply felt. However, more than 60 years after independence when the education sector has grown to accommodate students from all religions and communities, such an imperative is misplaced.
In fact, the partisan move — besides harming society’s educational interests — will only serve to deepen the communal schism. It is strange that despite the Union Government already allowing Jamia Millia Islamia to admit up to 50 per cent of students from the Muslim community, the institution should still seek minority status by way of right. Perhaps realising that the NCMEI’s decision would end up opening a can of worms, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development had opposed the move. In a bid to buy time it had suggested that the decision be kept on the backburner pending the Supreme Court’s verdict on the demand to confer minority status on Aligarh Muslim University. But now that the Ministry is faced with the NCMEI order, it will have to take some corrective measures. Can a minority institution continue to be a Central university that is governed by an Act of Parliament, some of whose provisions would be in conflict with the institution’s legal status? It would also be relevant to find out that in case the minority tag clashes with the provisions of the law governing Central universities, whether Jamia Millia Islamia would be willing to forego the benefits that it has enjoyed until now. It would also be appropriate to take into account that the very leaders of the Khilafat movement who founded the Jamia Millia Islamia were secular in their approach to the Indian freedom movement, although they drew on the support of the minority community to further their goals.
In fact, the partisan move — besides harming society’s educational interests — will only serve to deepen the communal schism. It is strange that despite the Union Government already allowing Jamia Millia Islamia to admit up to 50 per cent of students from the Muslim community, the institution should still seek minority status by way of right. Perhaps realising that the NCMEI’s decision would end up opening a can of worms, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development had opposed the move. In a bid to buy time it had suggested that the decision be kept on the backburner pending the Supreme Court’s verdict on the demand to confer minority status on Aligarh Muslim University. But now that the Ministry is faced with the NCMEI order, it will have to take some corrective measures. Can a minority institution continue to be a Central university that is governed by an Act of Parliament, some of whose provisions would be in conflict with the institution’s legal status? It would also be relevant to find out that in case the minority tag clashes with the provisions of the law governing Central universities, whether Jamia Millia Islamia would be willing to forego the benefits that it has enjoyed until now. It would also be appropriate to take into account that the very leaders of the Khilafat movement who founded the Jamia Millia Islamia were secular in their approach to the Indian freedom movement, although they drew on the support of the minority community to further their goals.
