Save Education from politics:Knowledge Commission Members to PM

New Delhi, May 22 (UNI) Knowledge Commission member Pratap Bhanu Mehta, who along with another member Dr Andrea Beteille today quit the Commssion in protest against the quota move, has appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh not to let institutions of higher learning be a ''playground for politicians.'' In his resignation letter to the Prime Minister, Dr Mehta also said he was appalled over the fact that a Group of Ministers has been empowered to come up with admission policies and seat formulas for these institutions.

Criticising the previous BJP ''government's instrumental use of educational institutions for ideological puroposes,'' Dr Mehta said the UPA Government was also acting in a similar manner, though with different objectives.

''Your Government is sending a similar message about our institutions that in the final analysis, they are playthings for politicians to mess around with.'' He said the steps being comtemplated by the Government to tackle the situation arising out of its decision to implement quota in higher educational instiutions were not based on asessment of effectiveness and were incompatible with freedom and diversity of institutions.

''These measures will not achieve social justice... Achieving this requires radical forms of affirmative action. But the numerically mandated quota your government is proposing are deeply disappointing,' said Dr Mehta in his letter.

These measures forclose any possibility of more intelligent targetting, he said stressing that the nature of deprivations faced by Scheduled Castes and Tribes were qualitatively different from that of the Other Backward Classes(OBCs), at least in North India.

Reservation was basically a way of avoiding doing things that really create access for the deprives classes, he said.

Dr Mehta felt the proposed measures would would harm the nation's vital interest.

He said that though he could not agree more with the view that caste was a reality in India, but feels that the present government was trying to make caste the only reality in the country.

Dr Mehta also criticised the Government for ''consistently hiding behind the pretext of the constitutional amendment,'' saying it was just another example of how it was foreclosing the fine distinction that any rigorours approach to access and excellence required.

The amendment was only an enabling legislation and it did not require that every public institution have numerically mandated quotas for OBCs.

Renowed social scientist Dr Beteille in his resignation letter also contended that providing quota in higher educational institution was not a proper interpretation of the amended constitutional provisions.

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