Written by Sanjana Suchdev Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin asked Monday whether the BJP-led Union government that has been attacking the Congress over excesses during the Emergency would reverse one of the decisions taken in the period, and move education back to the State List from the Concurrent List. His statement followed the Centre’s announcement that June 25, the day the Emergency was declared in 1975, would henceforth be celebrated as ‘Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas (Constitution Murder Day)’. The DMK government led by Stalin and the Centre have been at cross-purposes over the issue of medical college entrance being centralised under NEET, with Tamil Nadu demanding that the state be allowed to conduct its own admission process. The controversy over alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG entrance exam this year has added momentum to the demand. Hitting back, BJP Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai asked why the DMK had been silent when it was a part of the UPA government at the Centre for 10 years. “In 2006, the DMK promised to bring education back to the State List. Why did the party, which was all-powerful in the Congress-led government at the Centre, not fulfill this promise?” Annamalai asked. * What are the three lists defining powers between the states and Centre, and how are subjects slotted among them? It is the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution that lays out the division of powers between the Union and states on different subjects, slotting them under the Union, State or Concurrent List. While the Union List contains subjects on which the Centre is the sole legislative authority, states deal with subjects under the State List, while the Concurrent List has subjects on which both can legislate. In case of a conflict between a state and the Centre on a subject under the Concurrent List, the Central law prevails. Shifting subjects from one list to another requires a constitutional amendment. * How did education come to be under the Concurrent List, and why? During the Emergency, the Indira Gandhi government brought in the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution, involving a total of 57 insertions and changes, including transferring education from the State List to the Concurrent List. This was on the basis of a report by the Sardar Swaran Singh Committee, which recommended various amendments and transfer of powers from the State List to the Concurrent List. Indira Gandhi, in her speech in the Lok Sabha on October 27, 1976, said that the purpose of the Bill was “to remedy the anomalies that have long been noticed and to overcome obstacles put up by economic and political vested interests”. The Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha with 4 votes against it and 366 in favour. All but eight of over 600 amendments were dropped or defeated. The Rajya Sabha passed it by 190 votes in its favour and none against. With 13 of 22 State Legislatures ratifying it, the President gave his assent on December 18, 1976. * Why does the DMK government want education to be transferred back to the State List? It has been a long-standing position of the DMK that measures such as the Modi government’s National Education Policy and NEET should not be made mandatory across the country. Stalin has said that moving education back to the State List would provide state governments more authority over educational programmes, helping address specific regional demands and problems. The DMK has called NEET an “industry” created for the “welfare” of coaching centres that rake in “several lakh crores”, and said concerns first expressed by Tamil Nadu regarding it were now being taken up by other major parties at the national level. On July 2, DMK Rajya Sabha MP P Wilson urged the Union government to either abolish NEET or approve Tamil Nadu’s NEET exemption Bill to exclude the state from the competitive exam. * What were the views of the Constituent Assembly members regarding which list education should belong to? On November 5, 1948, member of the Constituent Assembly and well-known educationist Frank Anthony argued: “. divergent, fissiparous, opposing educational policies will be the greatest force for disintegration and the disruption of this country”. On September 2, 1949, as amendments to the lists were being discussed, Maulana Hasrat Mohani, a Constituent Assembly member from the United Provinces, argued for the subject to be part of the Concurrent List, saying: “Education should be included in the Concurrent List and not be made a provincial subject. Even then, I do not say that it be included in the First List (the Union List). As I do not want to make the Centre all-powerful, I am trying to get this included in the Concurrent List.” However, Shibban Lal Saxena stressed that the Centre’s control was the key to ensuring a “general pattern” of education across the country. “… If it can be secured that Education throughout India follows the same general pattern, we can be sure that the intelligentsia of the country will be thinking on similar lines. This would be a better check against the dangers of fragmentation than any centralisation of Government or concentration of power in the hands of the Central Authority.” In the same debate, T T Krishnamachari, who was a member of the Drafting Committee of the Constitution, said that a balance had been struck between the Centre and the state as far as the division of the subjects was concerned. “We have provided, and the House has accepted those provisions, which confer enough power on the Centre to coordinate the educational activities of the states in the field of higher education, in the field of technical education, in the field of vocational education and also in the field of scientific research. That is about as far as it is safe for the Central Government to go; it would not be wise for any central Government to go beyond that limit.” The writer is an intern with The Indian Express
