Minority quota in colleges a major mistake

MINORITY REPORT: Panelists debate if it's time to define the nature of a minority institute in the ambit of its powers.

      

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In what could be the first signs of a rebellion against Christian quota at the prestigious St Stephen’s College in Delhi, most members of the permanent faculty boycotted the special Assembly on the first day of the academic session on Tuesday.

Just weeks after announcing a 50 per cent quota for Christian students, St Stephens went a step further in preserving the "Christian character" of the institution by announcing a quota in faculty recruitment as well, leading to the boycott call from various faculty members.

The college has been divided on the issue ever since pro-tem administrator MS Frank decided to unofficially reserve seats for Christians in the college faculty.

In fact the St Stephen's controversy focuses attention on how exactly a minority institution should define itself - a centre of religious identity or a centre of institutional excellence.

Is India's premier centre of excellence turning into a Christian institution from being an Indian institution? CNN-IBN’s Face The Nation debated if minority institutions have taken their minority identity too far.

The panel of experts comprised alumnus of St Stephen's and Senior Fellow in Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Dilip Simeon; Spokesperson, Delhi Catholic Archdiocese, Father Dominic Emmanuel and Principal of Jai Hind College in Mumbai, Kirti Narain. CNN-IBN’s Sagarika Ghose moderated the debate.

Public institution

Sagarika initiated the debate by saying that St Stephen’s College was a public institution and public institutions exist on basis of public funds.

The taxpayer pays for the institute. Should St Stephen’s College or a minority institution like this, therefore violate certain basic rules of fairness, saying that faculty positions too must be reserved for Christians?

Father Dominic questioned why St Stephen’s College was being singled out as a public-funded institute.

“There are thousands of institutions in India which are funded by public funds but which are for specific minorities and that is how it has been decided by the Constitution and it is a privilege given to these institutions by the constitution,” said Father Dominic.

He added, “What is this debate about the academic excellence being sacrificed? What is the big deal about academic excellence? St Columbus, also known to be a highly excellent institute academically, has long time ago given up the idea of excellence and many other Christian institutions run by the Jesuits have given up the idea of academic excellence. It is because at some time it felt that it had gone away from the basic call of Jesus Christ, which is an option for the poor and the oppressed. If academic excellence is there, well and good, and if it is not, our first priority anyways is the downtrodden and the poor.”