Ire of the minorities

Communists never miss an opportunity to pride themselves as saviours of minorities. But, at least in states where they are in power, the minorities refuse to see them as saviours and consider them their arch enemies. If Nandigram and Taslima Nasrin brought Muslims in West Bengal to the streets against the Left Front Government, in Kerala, most Christian and Muslim organisations are now up in arms against the Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government’s reforms in minority-dominated education sector. The Opposition, United Democratic Front, has pledged its support to their agitation.The latest to bring minority ire against the Left are the recommendations— expected to be made—by an expert committee formed by the state government to amend the 50-year-old Kerala Educational Rules. Both Christian churches and Muslim religious organisations are already agitated even after the Government’s repeated assurance that none of the feared recommendations would be implemented and that they have not yet been finalised by the expert committee. “We are neither contemplating any changes in school timings, which would clash with madrasa classes nor is there a proposal to allow boys and girls sit together. This is a calumny spread by vested interests against the Government,” says Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan. Alarmed by the anger of the minorities, Education Minister M.A. Baby met the powerful Sunni cleric Kanthapuram A.P. Abubaker Maulavi and assured him that there was nothing to fear..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}But this has cut no ice with the minority groups. The state madrasa co-ordination committee closed down about 20,000 madrasas on December 13 in protest. A state-level agitation plan has already been announced by various Muslim religious organisations with the full backing of the Muslim League. They have demanded that the activities of the Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad, a prominent pro-Left popular science movement and winner of the Right Livelihood Award be banned in schools. “They are behind the moves to impose the atheist agenda,” stated Samasta Kerala Jamiyyathul Ulema. Madrasa committee protestThe organisation has also charged that there was a proposal to allow boys and girls in high schools to sit side-by-side in classrooms in the name of gender justice. “We will not allow this,” says Ulema President Kalampady Muhammed Musaliar. An anti-Government campaign centred in mosques will be launched by the organisation.“We will not allow Kerala to turn into a Bengal. Religious sentiments cannot be trampled upon,” says Muslim League leader Panakkad Shihab Thangal. Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee President Ramesh Chennithala echoes the sentiment.The Christian groups, especially the Catholic church, which had been at war with the Government in its earlier moves to control self-financing professional colleges, have taken a more belligerent posture. Pastoral letters have been read out in all the churches warning against any truck with atheists. The Catholic church has also launched an agitation against the Government in assembly constituencies. “Yes, it is a political move to garner all Christian votes to teach the Government a lesson. It doesn’t mean that we have any political bias. But Christians have to strengthen their vote banks,” says Archbishop Joseph Powathil, who is leading the agitation. He has even made a call to all Christian families to send their children only to Christianrun schools. Catholic leaders have also written to All India Congress Committee President Sonia Gandhi, expressing anguish over the alleged anti-Christian attitude of state Government. “Entrusting the administration of our schools to the local self-governments is a clear way of meddling with them politically,” says Powathil.Though Achuthanandan and CPI(M)) Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan have warned minority leaders against playing political games with them, the Government looks alarmed as the minority agitation is reminiscent of the minority-backed “liberation struggle”, which had ousted the first Communist government in 1957. The Government leaders are bending over backwards saying there would be no move against minority-run institutions. “We have no plan to take over private or minorityrun institutions,” says Achuthanandan.C.P. Nair, former chief secretary who heads the expert committee, says it will have none of the dreaded recommendations. “We don’t want to change the school timings or to make boys and girls to sit together. All we are thinking of is having an attendance register in alphabetical order instead of the present gender-based registers”. The committee is to submit its report, which contains various recommendations to improve administrative rules and the quality of education, to the Government by year end.Although religious sentiments have been invoked by the minorities, the Government and those who support the reforms feel the real grouse is economic. For one of the most significant reforms being proposed is to entrust the appointments in government-aided schools with the state public service commission. At present, appointments are a lucrative cash cow for the managements (prevailing market rate for a high school teacher is more than Rs 12 lakh) even as the salaries are paid by the Government.Some Hindu managements, like the Nair Service Society, have also objected to the reforms regarding appointments and administration being handed over to panchayats. The only major Hindu group which supports the reforms is Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana (SNDP) Yogam, a lower caste Ezhavas’ organisation. “The Government shouldn’t buckle under pressure of the minorities and should go ahead with the reforms,” says Vellappally Natesan, general secretary, SNDP. A few non-Catholic Christian groups, too, say there is nothing wrong in implementing social and economic justice in educational institutions. However, with the looming prospects of Lok Sabha elections next year, LDF, with its truncated image, looks in no mood to antagonise the powerful minorities further and the much-awaited reforms appear to be on their way to the cold storage.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Dec 27, 2007--- ENDS ---

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Ire of the minorities

Christian and Muslim groups say the proposed reforms in education are aimed at hurting religious sentiments.

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