On 8th august 1947, a report of advisory and minority committee was submitted by sardar vallabiah patel to the president of the constituent assembly. The committee has submitted proposals advising the house to adopt certain political safeguards for the minorities by way of reservation of seats in the legislatures on the basis of population and other protective measures. However due to the horrific and violent consequences of the partition resulting in death of many people and trans-border migration, the house realized that if the advisory committee proposal would create further communal mistrust between the two countries. It was a two daylong debate prolonged debate May 25-26 1949 and one of the eventful chapters of post constitution history.
During the debate, separate electorate, reserved quotas in legislatures in proportion representation were the chief instruments through which the minority representation was ensured.
The strongest arguments for these political safeguards were put put forth by the muslim league members and Sikhs during the discussions of the first minority report by the advisory committee in august 1947. The proposal put forth by the committee was reservation of seats under joint electorates for the muslims, sc’s, Christians and tribes in state legislatures and parliament.
The main contentions revolved around the system of representation under the proposal and invoked many arguments.
They argued that the question of removal of reservations couldn’t be discussed without discussion of the secure representation of minorities in the legislature.
2.1 DEBATES FAVORING RESERVATIONS AND SEPARATE REPRESENTATIONS.
The Muslim league representatives’ Mr. B. Pocker sahib and Mr. Mohamed Ismail sahib argued that the minorities are feature of every society and not a product of the colonial contrivance. These fundamental differences were inherent to every society and all its facets.
‘This separate electorate is not separatism at all; it means the recognition of differences between one group of people and another’. ‘
They argued that these differences existed among the different religious groups and these have to be represented at the legislature, as the legislative body makes laws that affect the communities and its needs.
Therefore they advocated separate electorates are required, through this system group representation would be authentic as the election of the community’s representative would be done by the members of that community. And therefore under the joint system of electorates this would not be achieved, it would not be a true representation rather a descriptive representation. it was also argued by Mr. Ismail Sahib that the candidates contesting for the reserved seats would facilitate the interests of the majority community under the joint electorate. Therefore the safeguards in effect are unavailing and explained them in words:
‘Supposing there is a difference of opinion between the minority community and the majority community, then will the representative of the majority community represent the different views of the minority, sir? Such differences may not be many, but when there are such difference they are important and it is necessary and vital that the minority people should be satisfied on those matters.’
2.2 ARGUMENTS AGAINST THE RESERVATIONS
The arguments opposing the reservations are nationalistic in nature. The opposition on three aspects
‘ Entities to be represented.
‘ How the representation was to be achieved.
‘ Functions of such representation.
Naziruddin ahmad, a member form the west Bengal and lady muslim member Begum Aizaz Rasul argued that the if the current proposal of the reservations were to be implemented the existing differences between the muslims will further deepen .
Therefore the separate electorate system was against the secular aim of the state. The interests represented form this system are religious interests and do not cater to the aspirations of a secular form the standpoint of political representation. The issues under a secular state are dealt on a national level rather with respect to particular communities. Religion is irrelevant to the political representation; therefore religious based separate electorates were inappropriate and violation of equal citizenship norm. A religious based political right as anachronistic to modern secular nation was being argued by Govind Vallabh Pant.
Separate electorates are also undemocratic because it privileges some religious groups over the other in the representation process and undermines the political equality .
Therefore instead of separate electorates the nationalists favored proportional system of representation. It was strongly argued by ZH Lari that the proportional representation comparing the similar instances in other countries like Ireland etc, was more democratic and progressive. He also argued that the post electoral system would lead to disfranchisement of political minorities who would not vote for the winning candidate. The underlying principle was that every citizen has equal right to be represented and not significant groups. It was also defended on the grounds that it would be more representative of the diversity of the political opinions and is adherent to the democratic norm representation in the assemblies by non-recognition of ascriptive and religious identities. It was also argued by Mahboob Ali Baig Sahib that proportional system of representation would prevent concentration of power in the hands of the majority, a tendency similar in parliamentary form of government.
It was also argued by ZH Lari that proportional representation by cumulative voting would strengthen the national unity. It would make the governmental action more consultative and will enjoy higher legitimacy, and increases the support of the minorities.
The proposals for proportional representation when put forward before the parliament and cabinet were rejected. The grounds of rejection they were difficult in practice as large part of india was illiterate. It would create political instability. and joint electorate system was adopted.
3. CURRENT DEVELOPMENTS
Recommendations from the Ranganath misra commission report.
‘ The national commission on the religious and linguistic minorities, headed by the former chief justice of India Ranganth Misra, had recommended that instead of 27% reservation for the OBC’s, 15% reservation for the Muslims and Christians, leaving 12% for the OBCs would serve better purpose.
‘ The commissions also considered the inclusion of Jains under minorities list to extend the benefits of the welfare schemes of the government.
‘ The committee recommended that provision of such a reservation would be in consonance of the spirit of article 15 and article 16, prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, sex etc, and equality of opportunity in matters of public employment.
‘ The committee recommendations are:
‘ In manner for applying the criteria for backward classes there should be no distinction between majority and minority community.
‘ The application of this criterion should be free of any ethnic differences.
‘ Underrepresentation of the minority communities especially Muslims, should be given quotas in employment bringing them under article 16(4), under socially and educationally backward, as this is practically difficult to implement it would the Mandal commission’s suggestion.
‘ The minorities constitute 8.4% of the OBC population, therefore in the 27% of the OBC quota, 8.4 % of it would go to the minorities, with the break up of 6% for the Muslims and 2.4% for other minorities.
POSITION OF RESERVATION IN DIFFERENT STATE GOVERNMENTS
‘ The government of Telangana had proposed to implement 12% reservations for the Muslims in job and education as promised in the election manifesto
‘ Tamil Nadu government has exceeded the cap for reservation by providing 69% reservation to the Muslims and the Christians. This current law is under litigation in the Indian Supreme Court.
‘ West Bengal ahs 10% reservation for the minorities.
4. ANALYSIS
Though the political leaders have subscribed to a single notion of secular, democracy, different political ideals were at play in arguments in the constituent assembly debates. The nationalist leaders for securing an alternative form of representation for the minorities till now have made no attempt. The proposals suggested were just temporary mechanisms and compromises for the communities to move out form the colonial transition state. The remedies proposed in the debate encouraged loyalty but not political unity. The inequality arising out of this was not looked at.
Due to the above decision many of the minority communities are dwindling in number and have communities has demanded reservation on par with various backward communities. For example Many Christian leaders have demanded reservations for the Christian dalits in education and jobs
And felt alienated due to the vote bank politics in the country .Therefore the recommendations offered by the Ranganath Misra, Sachar committees have to be implemented to empower and uplift the community. Reservations must be granted to the minorities based on economic and social backwardness.