New Delhi: The Siddaramaiah administration in Karnataka is reeling under a big dilemma. And the quandary is regarding the new regulations that aim to grant the ‘religious minority’ tag to higher education institutions by doing away the requirement to enroll a fixed percentage of students from a particular minority community.
The Cabinet had to postpone its decision after Minority Welfare Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan, one of Congress’ prominent Muslim representatives, reportedly voiced concerns about the sensitive matter, Deccan Herald reported.
On Thursday, the Higher Education department sought the Cabinet’s nod to revise/change the rules for granting ‘religious minority’ status. This move aligns with a key policy decision made by the government in March this year.
What did the rules say?
In Karnataka, schools applying for ‘minority’ tag had to reserve 25 per cent of their seats for students from the specified minority religion. For instance, a Muslim minority institution was required to enroll at least 25 per cent of Muslim students. The 25 per cent quota for minority students was mandatory for the schools to be given ‘minority’ status.
Likewise, those institutions which offered higher education and technical education had to enroll 50 per cent students who belonged to the minority religion they catered to.
Why were the rules amended?
In March, these requirements were lifted as part of a decision aimed at institutions run by Christians, Jains, Sikhs, and Parsis, which were struggling to enroll 50 per cent of students from their respective communities to keep their ‘minority institution’ status.
Ahead of the Cabinet meeting, Higher Education Minister Dr MC Sudhakar told reporters that as the Christian population is less than or around 2 per cent, they are having a lot of difficulty in filling 50 per cent of the seats as required. He added that there was a request from them and therefore, Cabinet decided to relax the regulations a few months back. Currently, rules are being framed for that, he said.
Why are the Muslim minority institutions opposed to it?
However, Khan was surprised to know that the new regulations applied to institutions run by all minority communities, including Muslims.
The Muslim minority institutions are apparently not in favour of the relaxation of the rules, as they currently have adequate students from their community to meet the requirements for ‘minority institution’ status. They apprehend that such relaxation could result in non-minority students outnumbering minority students in their institutions.
What’s the hitch?
However, there is a bit of complication here as the rules cannot be changed selectively, keeping just one minority in mind. “We can’t exempt Muslims while offering relaxations to others,” a source familiar with the situation told Deccan Herald.
Sudhakar was quoted as saying by DH that it has been decided to hold more discussions on the matter. “It was also said that linguistic minority institutions are facing a similar problem. Moreover, this (problem) isn’t restricted to higher education.” And therefore, decision has been taken to discuss the issue with the school education department too.
