THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M) State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan has urged church leaders to review their move to launch an agitation against the Government over the Kerala Professional Colleges Act and to adopt the route of dialogue to resolve outstanding differences.

In a statement here on Monday, Mr. Vijayan said if there was any misunderstanding about the new law, it could be removed through dialogue.

The basic thrust of the law was on social justice and recourse to confrontationist positions against the Government over the law would be most unfortunate.

Everybody knew that student admissions and fee structure in the self-financing sector is marked by injustice, anarchy and violation of all norms of social justice.

The Kerala Assembly unanimously enacted the new law with the intention of checking such tendencies and ensuring social justice and merit.

Although the self-financing college managements had approached the Supreme Court questioning the law, the Court did not accept their contentions, he pointed out.

The CPI(M) leader appealed to the church authorities to examine whether it was proper for them to lead an agitation against the Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government and the Act when the whole issue was before the judiciary.

Although the managements had contended before the Court that the law was unconstitutional, their contention did not find acceptance.

When students indulged in a violent agitation to protect the new law, the CPI(M) had totally rejected it.

How could those who had arrived at the conclusion that such agitations were meant to influence the Court justify the protest programmes held in churches on Sunday, he asked.

The Left in general and the CPI(M) in particular had cordial relations with minorities and church authorities and were in the forefront in protecting the minorities and their places of worship from assaults unleashed by communal fascist forces.

As a result of all this, a sizeable section of the minority communities had given up the politics of the 1957-'59 `Liberation Struggle.' Some priests' failure to hear this voice of the times and their declaration at the site of the police firing during the `Liberation Struggle' at Angamali that a second such stir was being launched was unjustifiably impetuous, he added.

Mr. Vijayan said the contention in the pastoral letter that the new law denied the minorities the right to set up new educational institutions was nothing but an attempt to generate unfounded fear among the laity.

0The United Democratic Front (UDF) Government had taken the stand that no educational institution in Kerala has the right to claim minority status. Church authorities were not prepared to hold prayer meetings or issue pastoral letters against it. The new law does not bar grant of minority status to any institution.

The relevant provision in the new law was that an institution would be eligible for minority status only if at least 50 per cent of those who secure admissions in minority institutions belonged to that community and out of them, a specific percentage were poor in the community.

Thus, the new law was intended to realise the higher education dreams of the majority in the minority communities.

It was in keeping with the Constitution and something that ensures social justice. If the church authorities have any misgivings or misunderstanding about the Act, it could be discussed sitting around a table, the CPI(M) leader said.

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