The raison d’etre of an elected government is to safeguard the integral and overall wellbeing of all its constituents, irrespective of caste, creed, religion...etc. But I was aghast to learn from the print media that our State Government, through its Department of Education, the portfolio of which is held by our Chief Minister, has done a great injustice by discriminating against minority-run educational institutions, and continues to persevere in the apparent injustice in spite of the course correction directed by the Honourable Bombay High Court at Goa, to the extent of attracting the contempt of court. It is so pathetic to learn that the Government, which has the prime obligation to promote the education of its constituents, is in fact hampering the education process of minority-run institutions through fraudulent tactics and government machinery, with the audacity of trying to deprive them of the minority rights enshrined in Article 30 (1), (2) of the Constitution of India.
It was horrifying to learn that owing to such excessive State interference, hundreds of teachers teaching in minority-aided schools have not been paid their salaries for a period of over two years because someone in the government has an axe to grind and is dragging the minority-run educational institutions and the Society managing them into an eternal legal quagmire. What kind of motivation will a teacher who is not paid her salary for over two years have to teach the students under her care? Will not this devious, unethical, irresponsible and step-motherly treatment by the government through the Education Department endanger the deserving education of thousands of students, not only of the minority community but also of students of the majority community, a huge chunk of whom are catered for in these minority-run institutions? All that the management of these minority institutions is asking the government is to allow them to establish and administer their own institutions, which includes the right to appoint and discipline their own teachers without departmental interference and without any malice to academic quality, transparency and fairness. If these aided minority institutions are running their administrative affairs solely guided by the rights enshrined in Article 30(1) of the Constitution of India, then why is the government and its departmental machinery being brazenly punitive and coming in the way of them enjoying their Constitutional rights? “Sabka sath, sabka vikas” cannot be mere slogans but should be the guiding principle of the Government in power; otherwise, this government has no moral right to continue in governance. May good sense and Constitutional wisdom prevail, lest the future of thousands of innocent teachers and students be permanently maimed.
Edmund Barretto, Sadolxem
