The Hindu : Kerala News : Act a major step for social control of education: Karat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 19, 2006

Kerala

Kerala

Act a major step for social control of education: Karat

Special Correspondent

Says State has moved beyond 93rd Constitution amendment

IN SERIOUS DISCUSSION: CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, flanked by Education Minister M.A. Baby and the former Kerala University Vice-Chancellor G. Balamohan Thampi, at a seminar on Kerala Professional Colleges Act in Thiruvananthapuram on T uesday. Poet O.N.V. Kurup, V. Sivankutty, MLA, Varkala Radhakrishnan, MP, are also seen. Photo: S. Gopakumar

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat has termed Kerala Professional Colleges Act a piece of legislation that went beyond the 93rd Constitution amendment to ensure social control of professional education.

Inaugurating a seminar on Kerala Professional Colleges Act here on Tuesday, Mr. Karat said the struggle for social control could not be confined to Kerala and that the Left would launch a countrywide popular movement to take the initiative forward. "I do not think that ultimately this is a legal question and that this is going to be decided legally... It is a social question. It is going to be decided by the people. The struggle must go on as it is important for Kerala and India," he said.

Mr. Karat said the question of minority rights should be viewed against the principles of secularism and equality. In a State that is secular, a minority institution could impart religious education. The Constitution protected that. Apart from that, it could also meet the needs of the minority community. The CPI(M) fully respected that and that was why it had opposed attempts by the BJP to do away with such protections provided under Article 30, he said.

However, the issues underlying the current debate in Kerala could not be seen in isolation by anyone who considered education a public good and a basic right of all citizens. All those concerned about access to education are agitated about attempts to make professional education the preserve of a few. Nobody could be allowed to take the plea of minority rights to trample upon the rights of teachers or any other groups. Nor can they claim protection under Article 30 on questions relating to profiteering, he added.

Mr. Karat said he was happy that Kerala had provided the wider framework for social control of education and recalled that the Left had been demanding enactment of a Central legislation to achieve the same objective. Although a draft Bill was prepared in late 2004 and sent to State Governments, it was not acted upon. The Left would continue to work for such a law, he said.

Presenting the salient features of the Act at the seminar, Education Minister M. A. Baby said the Government has decided to go in appeal against the Kerala High Court order of Tuesday for status quo in procedures for admissions in self-financing colleges in the State. The Kerala Act, he said, was in consonance with the Supreme Court judgment in the Inamdar Case and accused the private self-financing college managements of having failed to go by the apex court's directive to be fair, transparent and non-exploitative in their actions.

Mr. Baby rebutted the charge that the Act was passed by the Assembly in haste. The Government's position, on the contrary, was that the law should have been put in place much earlier. The Government, he said, had also not adopted any discriminatory attitude towards non-resident Indians or treated them like milch cows as was being alleged by some. There was no bar on children of Gulf Malayalis staking claim to 85 per cent seats outside the NRI quota as well, he added. The former Vice-Chancellor of Kerala University G. Balamohanan Thampi chaired the seminar. Poet O.N.V. Kurup and former additional Chief Secretary T.N. Jayachandran spoke.

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