NEW DELHI: The National Democratic Alliance decided at a meeting here on Monday that it would oppose the Constitution Amendment Bill proposed by the Government to provide for reservation in unaided private professional colleges.

However, there were indications that the Janata Dal (United) was a divided house on this issue.

Although the Government had claimed that it had drafted the Bill after a "consensus" arrived at an all-party meeting of leaders organised by the Human Resource Development Ministry, the agreement fell apart after the Bill made clear that minority institutions would be kept out of its purview. Under the Bill there would be no obligation for minority institutions to provide reservation for scheduled castes and tribes and the socially and economically backward classes.

While all the major political parties favour restoration of the reservation pattern that stood abolished by a Supreme Court verdict recently, the parties of the NDA have expressed the view that reservation must be made obligatory for all private aided or unaided educational institutions, including minority institutions.

Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson V.K. Malhotra said that the NDA favoured reservations for scheduled castes and tribes and backward classes from among the minorities in the minority institutions.

`Definition not clear'

The BJP has also pointed out that the definition of what was a minority institution was not very clear.

In many States educational institutions run by linguistic minorities had the "minority" status. Mr. Malhotra insisted that the NDA's opposition to the proposed legislation was not because the NDA was opposed to overturning the Supreme Court verdict but because it wanted the reservation policy to apply to all educational institutions without exemption.

The Government's draft bill exempts minority institutions.

The Akali Dal was notably absent at the NDA meeting. The Dal is opposed to the extension of reservation to private institutions run by the Sikhs.

JD (U) position

Although Mr. Malhotra claimed that the JD (U) leaders Prabhunath Singh and Digvijay Singh — who attended the meeting — stood by the NDA's opposition to the Bill, JD (U) president Sharad Yadav told The Hindu that his party's position on the matter was different from that of the BJP.

...He said that the JD (U) was "not in favour of stalling the Bill" though the Government has made it clear that the JD (U)'s concerns could not be taken on board.

Mr. Yadav explained that his party would have liked to see that the backward classes among the minorities are given the benefit of reservation in minority institutions, whether aided or unaided.

Demand rejected

This demand was turned down by Union Law Minister H.R. Bharadwaj at a meeting convened at the Prime Minister's residence on Sunday to address the concerns expressed by the backward class MPs from various parties.

Monday's NDA meeting was chaired by BJP president L.K. Advani and attended by BJP leaders Jaswant Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi and Sushma Swaraj, besides Mr. Malhotra. The Janata Dal (United) was represented by Prabhunath Singh and Digvijay Singh, the Trinamool Congress by Dinesh Trivedi and the Biju Janata Dal by B.J. Pande.

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