Even Stephens: College quota, a minor issue?

QUOTA UNQUOTE: The panel debates if the standards set by St Stephen's will take a hit.

            

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Keywords: OBC Quota, Scheduled Tribe

Is this the death of brand St Stephen's? One of India's most prestigious colleges has introduced a 50 per cent quota for Christian applicants on the basis that it is a Christian minority institute. But there is a criticism that the college too may soon join the long list of centres of excellence whose standards have been irreversibly lowered by those practising the politics of religion or ideology on campus.

On Face the Nation, a CNN-IBN panel – comprising actor Kabir Bedi, historian Ramachandra Guha, Prof Nandita Narain and Former JNU Student Union President Albeena Shakil debated if quotas will destroy elite educational institutions.

Incidentally, Bedi, Guha and Narain were Stephanians and so was the moderator of the show, Sagarika Ghose.

A typical Devil’s Advocate argument for the pro-quota lobby would be: St Stephen’s was not built by Christians. It was founded by missionaries all right, but it has become an institution to reckon with because of the diversity that Indians – and not necessarily Christians – brought to it.

Narain kickstarted the debate by disagreeing with the argument. She argued there nothing wrong with the idea of quota and the General Category students have little reason to feel bad. “No one is above the law. And the law in 1992 clearly stated St Stephen’s was a minority institute. The number of Christian students kept increasing from that year – and there’s no denying it – till it reached 40 pc last year. But the General category quota has been kept to 40 per cent. So there’s no reason for General students to feel disappointed and let down,” she said, pointing out was a 2003 TMA Pai judgement that upheld the minority status of St Stephens, empowering it to admit more than 50 pc Christian students.

In the argument against quota in St Stephen’s, more often than not, elitism is confused with excellence. Narain warned against this line of thought and said dilution of elitism does not necessarily mean dilution of excellence.

The argument sounds a striking parallel with what the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena Chief Raj Thackeray has been insisting. Thackeray cites a Constitutional Article (that applies to both linguistic and religious minorities) and says Maharashtrian institutions of the state must admit only Maharashtrians people since they are a minority in that state.

Owe and Awe: Indebted to Christians?

But Narain did not take kindly to the comparison and said there was a difference between Raj Thackeray and the Supreme Court. “Sagarika, you and I are Stephanians. We owe the college for what we are today. The college, for 120 years, catered to us like foster mother,” she said. Narain also said we owed a lot to the Christian community. “Christian community has made significant contribution to education and health and we owe it to them, “she said.

Therefore, the question that most from the pro-quota are asking is: should we grudge if Stephen’s tries to help its own community?

Ramchandra Guha joined the debate on a very crucial note. He pointed out the difference between religion-based quota and “integrity-based” quota. Guha, a Stephanian himself, also pointed out the quotas in Stephen’s was different from quotas in IITs and IIMs. “The SC says that a minority institution may hike quote to 50 per cent. It does not say “must”. There’s a huge difference between the two. If it’s a religious purpose, it’s being read as “must” but for integrity purposes , it becomes may,” he said.

Guha also pointed out the fallacy of not being able to differentiate between “may” and “must”. “St Stephen’s, like the IIM, is funded by the state and two per cent of the population gets 50 per cent of the seats. This is because of the shoddy interpretation of the law,” he said.

Hence, the real winners in this process are the communalists, he said.

Standard deduction: Elite is excellent?

Actor Kabir Bedi – also a St Stephen’s alumni – on Monday said the quotas will not lead to a fall in the standards of the college. Bedi took on Guha’s argument and said St Stephen’s had the right to implement quota, regardless of it being an oversight in interpreting laws. He insisted the quality won’t suffer if quota was for the brightest students in the community. “Experience of IITs and IIMs has been that minority students there have a hard time in the beginning but in the end, their results are at par with others. In these competitive situations, the difference between getting and not getting through is narrow. So St Stpehen’s would rather have the brightest representatives from their community and there’s nothing wrong in that,” he explained.

The Sachar Committee says those wanting reservation for minorities were playing politics. Many Muslim intellectuals like Irfan Habib have argued that places like the Aligarh Muslim University should not be declared a minority institute.