Please refer to your letter of 26 August, 2000 received today regarding the right of the minorities to establish educational institutions of their choice. The question you have raised is not new. This aspect was debated in the Constituent Assembly. Also, this is one of the issues now pending before the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court.
However, many minorities anywhere in the world, even in the USA, enjoy the right to open a general educational institution for their children: first, to supplement the educational facility available otherwise; secondly, to educate its children in the proper cultural environment, and thirdly, to provide religious instruction for that purpose.
No Muslim educational institution has the authority to reduce the entry requirements for its candidates. This concession is not available to any Muslim or OBC's. It is only available to SC/ST.
All Minority educational institutions are subject to the same academic, administrative and legal requirements as the government institutions or the institutions established by any other community. So if a particular management misbehaves, it is for the law to take its course. It is for public-spirited citizens like you to report any misdemeanour to the Government and the university concerned.
The members of the minority communities are as much Indian as the members of the majority community. Even Hindus are not just Hindus, they are also Tamils, Telugus, Punjabis, Marathis etc., they are also Brahmins, Rajputs, Banias, Yadavs etc. So, all of us apart from being Indian have other identities. All the multiple identities can co-exist harmoniously.
As for the National Urdu University in Hyderabad, the object is to promote Urdu as a vehicle of higher learning. This is a legitimate aspiration of the Urdu-speaking people. Apart from Hindi, Urdu is the only pan- Indian national language, the official language of the J&K and the second official language in Bihar, AP and Delhi but unlike other MIL's, it has a homeland State. So the NUU is to save the Urdu community as a whole. Urdu in any case, is not a foreign language or even the language only of Mustims. I do not think the NUU has any plan to establish technical or professional faculties. At the present, it is struggling with the basic courses for the under- graduate level.
I appreciate your sympathy for the Muslim youth. I would suggest that given the. educational and economic backwardness of the Muslim community as a whole, you should press the government to declare it s 'Backward Class' and give it a proportionate quota in higher education and in at least public employment. I assure you that if there is reservation for Muslims in all government the demand for Muslim educational institutions, will go down, except for purely religious instruction, as you desire.
Incidentally, I would personally like the ambit of Article 29 and 30 to be expanded to included all communities, majority or minority. And please remember, even the Hindu community is a minority in some states and in other states at some lower levels.
