KP’s
resentation in legislature
Sir,
Adverting
news story Daily Excelsior captioned
"Government to accord priority to
Pandits’demands-PM" October 30,
I submit:
In 1920s
two vital political norms of Indian
politics were forged on pragmatic and
normative grounds. One; no group is
privileged even if it happens to be in
majority. Two groups have to be protected
against majoritarian agendas simply
because they are in a minority and
therefore vulnerable. This is according
to the best principles of liberal
democracy that safeguards each and every
individual, even if the majority thinks
otherwise. Consequently, the rights of
the minorities to their culture and
religion and right to be protected
against majoritarianism were recognized
as far back as 1928 in the Motilal Nehru
Draft Constitution.
Subsequently,
Jawaharlal Nehru writing a note on
minorities in Young India on May 15,1930,
was to state that "the history of
India and of many of the countries of
Europe has demonstrated that there can be
so stable equilibrium in any country so
long as an attempt is made to crush a
minority or force it to conform to the
ways of the majority… It matters
little whether brand of culture is
worthwhile or not. The mere fact of
losing it makes it dear. Therefore, we in
India must make it clear to all that our
policy is based on granting this freedom
to the minorities and that under no
circumstance will any coercion or
repressing them will be tolerated. . We
can also lay down as our deliberate
policy that there shall be no unfair
treatment of any minority."
The
Karachi Charter on Fundamental Rights of
1931 reiterated this principle. It
acknowledged the right of the minorities
to their religion, the freedom to profess
and practice any religion and laid down
that the State should be neutral in
religious matters. During the second
session of the Round Table, a Memorandum
on the "Congress Scheme for Communal
Settlement"was presented before the
Minorities Committee on October 28,1931.
The scheme provided for the protection of
minority culture, language, script,
education, profession, religion and
religious endowment ad also the
protection of personal laws, as well as
for a proportionate share in the
Legislature for all communities through
joint electorates, protection of minority
interests in the Central and Provincial
Cabinets, and a fair share for the
minorities in public services.
The Report
of the Sir Tej Bahadur Committee that was
set up by the non-party conference in
November 1944 recommended full religious
tolerance, non-interference in religious
beliefs, practices and institutions, and
protection of the language and cultures
of all communities.
The Sapru
Committee also recommended political
representation, which created so much
controversy that the report could not be
adopted.
In a
similar vein, though the members of the
Constituent Assembly felt that the
minorities should have special political
representation, they said the
minorities’rights to their religion
should be recognised. The Subcommittee on
Minorities had in its report of July
17,1947, recommended that (1) seats
should be reserved for religious
minorities under joint electorates; (2)
the interests of such minorities should
be protected in the Cabinets through a
convention under a schedule to the
Constitution; (3) reservation of
minorities should be provided for the
public services, but these claims should
be balanced against the demand of merit
and efficiency.,and (4) independent
officers should be appointed to report on
the legislatures on the working of the
safeguards. The Advisory Committee"
on Fundamental Rights headed by Sardar
Patel accepted most of these
recommendations. In February 1948, these
provisions were incorporated into the
Draft Constitution in Part XIV under the
title "Special Provisions Relating
to Minorities". However, some
members of the Advisory Committee on
December 30,1948, reopened the matter of
political rights. The members felt that
in the light of the changed political
conditions—Partition—it was not
desirable that the minorities should have
reserved seats in the legislatures. On
may 25, 1949, Sardar Patel tabled the
report of the Advisory Committee in the
Constituent Assembly. "We have,
stated"the report, "felt bound
to reject some of the proposals placed
before us partly because as in the case
of reservation of seats in the Cabinet,
we felt that a rigid constitutional
provision would have made parliamentry
democracy unworkable… we wish to
make it clear, however, that our general
approach to the whole problem of the
minorities is that the State should be so
run that they should stop feeling
oppressed by the mere fact that they are
minorities and that, on the contrary,
they should feel that they have a
honourable a part to play in the national
life as any other section of the
community."
In the
backdrop of this do the Kashmiri Pandits
a minority with separate culture,
language, script, education, profession,
religion, and religious endowment and
also personal laws get to what is the
spirit behind the Constitution, I dare
ask?
Yours etc...
Predhuman K.Joseph Dhar,
Catholic Journalist,
Via E-mail
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