... (A) discussion of the fate of minority rights in the Constituent Assembly brings into focus the following: that the leading lights of the Indian National Congress were inspired by a vision of a homogenized unitary cultural nationalism, and that the circumstances in which partition was effected cast their shadow on the whole process of constitutional protection of minorities, robbing it of much of its content. The same unhappy denouement of partition rendered the position of the Muslim minority in India more vulnerable to the extent that in sections of the national political leadership and more so in bureaucracy the community came to be treated as suspect. It also helped to exhume buried ghosts of perceived wrongs done during the time of the so-called Muslim rule in medieval India. Today, nearly fifty years after the working of the Constitution and the unfolding of the shape of the polity, it should be obvious that whatever ht extent of India's unity and solidarity, it is the result not of homogenization but of federalism and pluralism. This is also the lesson drawn the world over during the last decade by all centralizing- homogenizing states. 'Piuralism in togetherness' or 'togetherness in pluralism' has become the watchword of the day wherever there are sizeable minorities based on race, religion, language or ethnicity.

It is therefore, time that a thorough review of the Constitution is undertaken in the light of its effectiveness in protecting the rights of minorities to survival and development with dignity and freedom and in promoting cherished features of their identity:

It is worthwhile examining how the assurances of ensured participation in the political process and hare in power of minorities - while doing away with statutory reservation of seats in legislatures for them -and the promise of fairness in securing them their due share in public services, have really worked through policy and programme on minorities.

A review of the Constitution is also required to bring its provisions on minorities into conformity with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities adopted on 18 December, 1992.

It needs to be stressed that while minority rights cannot be relativized, as affirmed by Ambedkar at the early stage of the framing of the Constitution, the universality of minority rights, as of human rights, in general demands that South Asian multi-lateral instruments are adopted providing for a machinery of implementation of equal r ights of minority in all SAARC countries, especially in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (Source: The Politics of Constitution Making in India)