Does Article 30 violate Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

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Does Article 30 violate Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
  By Moorthy Muthuswamy
http://www.indiacause.com/columns/OL_051223.htm
  
  India inherited its democratic system from the departing British in 1947 who
ruled over it for several hundred years. It is far from clear that India had a
mature and able class of indigenous people who could have formulated a robust
and Consistent Constitution.

It now appears that Article 30 of the Indian Constitution not only violates the
secular character of India, but also promotes religious discrimination of
majority and may be in violation of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights-Adopted and proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly resolution
217 A (III) of December 10, 1948.

Article 30 of the Indian Constitution has certain provisions whereby minorities
are exempted (are allowed to discriminate on the basis of religion, unlike
majority) from certain requirements in running their own institutions. By and
large, Hindus are not considered in minority (even in areas where they are in
minority such as Jammu and Kashmir) but Christians and Muslims definitely are.
For instance, according to Article 30, minority community may reserve up to 50
per cent of the seats for the members of its own community in an educational
institution established and administered by it even if the institution is
getting aid from the State.

Christian and Muslim controlled educational institutions in India, encouraged by
Article 30 of the Indian Constitution, are discriminating in favour of their
religious compatriots in employment and in student admissions (Religious
apartheid in India and American policy response).

But the Christians and the Muslims are not disadvantaged community in India.
Indian Christian community has among the highest literacy rate (53 per cent
Hindu literacy rate vs. 81 per cent Christian literacy rate; literacy also
implies wealth) and Indian Muslims already have a 25 per cent permanent
reservation of land, wealth and opportunities called Pakistan/Bangladesh-almost
emptied of Hindus due to massive ethnic cleansing and religious discrimination
(and driven away to India). Christian community was favoured by British
colonizers until sixty years ago.

Therefore, unlike America where blacks, discriminated for centuries, who are now
given employment preferences in the form of affirmative action, there is little
justification for minority reservations in India.

Indeed, Islamic Partitioning of India in 1947 has already made Hindus the
disadvantaged community in India and these minority reservations for
proselytizing religions such as Christianity or Islam create conditions of
majority Hindu religious genocide - by making the majority poor by unfairly
excluding them from employment and education.

This situation has already been created in Kerala where minorities have taken
advantage of Article 30 to exclude majority Hindus from education and employment
and driven them to poverty. This was pointed by Prof. Issac. The jihadi movement
in Kashmir is strengthened by reservations in favour of Muslims.

According to Article 23 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone
has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable
conditions of work and to protection against unemployment". The already
disadvantaged majority Hindus are being unfairly denied the right to work in
religious minority-controlled institutions in India because of their religious
affiliation, should also be considered in violation of the above Declaration.

Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: "Everyone has the
right to education.technical and professional education shall be made generally
available and higher education shall be made equally accessible to all on the
basis of merit." Religious minority controlled institutions in India give
preferential admission to students of their faith that again is sanctioned by
Article 30 of the Indian Constitution. This again unfairly denies already
disadvantaged majority Hindu students access to education on the basis of merit.

The recent assertion by the HRD minister, Arjun Singh defining Article 30 of the
Indian Constitution as "protecting minorities" is inappropriate. An appropriate
interpretation of Article 30 is one of giving unfair preferences to Indian
minorities but also of promoting majority apartheid and discrimination. Such an
Indian state can arguably seen as an uncivilized one (through its violation of
Universal Declaration of Human Rights), despite calling itself as a "secular
democracy". A detailed analysis shows that through constitutional based
religious discrimination of majority, the Indian state may be embarking on a
collective suicide of itself and its majority population - unless Article 30 is
amended to make it free of religious discrimination.

(The writer is an US-based nuclear physicist. He can be reached at
moor...@comcast.net)

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