BJP leaders "pooh-poohed" minority status to Hindus in J&K 20 yrs ago, NDA govt "cold shouldered" recommendation

By A Representative
In a significant revelation, a former chairman of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) has said that a report, prepared under him, recommending to the NDA government under Atal Behari Vajpayee that Hindus be treated as minorities in non-Hindu majority states of India was “pooh-poohed” by BJP leaders and “cold shouldered” by the government.
According to former NCM chairman Tahir Mahmood, who was also member of the Law Commission of India, this happened “two decades” ago, when he “personally prepared a special report titled ‘Hindu Minorities in India’, written after visiting the states concerned and hearing local leaders.”
“My report, recommending state-level minority status for Hindus in Jammu & Kashmir, Lakshadweep, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Punjab, was endorsed by the Commission and submitted to the central government, then led by the BJP”, Mahmood says in an article, adding though, it was rejected.
Mahmood’s stark revelation comes amidst a petition filed in the Supreme Court seeking to recognize Hindus as a religious minority in certain states, but says Mahmood, “If the petitioner’s idea has his party’s support it is intriguing.”
There are two petitions on the issue. One of them, filed by Ankur Sharma, a Jammu lawyer, came up for hearing the Supreme Court this month, insisting on the need to set up minorities commission in J&K, because, according to him, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians were “unable” to access benefits meant for minorities in the state, where 68.3% of the population is Muslim.
Sharma’s plea came after a BJP lawyer-leader Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay, petitioned the apex court to direct the Government of India to confer minority status on Hindus in seven states, including J&K, and a Union Territory.
On the advice of a bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Upadhyay withdrew his petition and has now approached the National Commission for Minorities, which is said to be considering the matter.
According to Sharma, in J&K, in the absence of a minorities commission, “crores worth aid are being given away to a certain community, which is the majority Muslim community, in an illegal and arbitrary manner”.
Says Mahmood, the apex court said, since J&K does not fall within the purview of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, a state minorities commission can only be set up "through legislation by the state assembly or an administrative order by the state government."
He notes, in the Constitution, Article 29 proclaims that “any section of citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have a right to conserve the same”.
He adds, "Article 30 recognises the right of a religious or linguistic minority to establish and administer educational institutions."
"Read together, the two provisions may be taken as the constitutional charter for religious and linguistic minorities at all levels", he underlines, adding, however, "The Constitution does not specify a mechanism for identifying groups of citizens covered by either of these provisions."
According to Mahmood, "The National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, confined in application to religious minorities, does not list them either; it only states that for the purposes of the Act the word 'minorities' means communities 'notified as such' by the central government."
Based on this, he says, a notification "issued under this provision in 1993 proclaimed Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs and Parsis as minorities".
Mahmood adds, "The Jains protested against their exclusion and, on taking over as the Commission’s chairman, I took the position that since the Constitution and the laws bracket Jains with Buddhists and Sikhs, the government had two options: either drop Buddhists and Sikhs from the list or to extend it to Jains."
Fifteen years later, the government went for the second option – on the persistent demand of some Jain leaders, the 1993 notification was modified to include their community among the minorities.

Comments

Whither space for the marginalised in Kerala's privately-driven townships after landslides?

By Ipshita Basu, Sudheesh R.C. In the early hours of July 30 2024, a landslide in the Wayanad district of Kerala state, India, killed 400 people. The Punjirimattom, Mundakkai, Vellarimala and Chooralmala villages in the Western Ghats mountain range turned into a dystopian rubble of uprooted trees and debris.

Advocacy group decries 'hyper-centralization' as States’ share of health funds plummets

By A Representative In a major pre-budget mobilization, the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), India’s leading public health advocacy network, has issued a sharp critique of the Union government’s health spending and demanded a doubling of the health budget for the upcoming 2026-27 fiscal year.

Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar’s views on religion as Tagore’s saw them

By Harasankar Adhikari Religion has become a visible subject in India’s public discourse, particularly where it intersects with political debate. Recent events, including a mass Gita chanting programme in Kolkata and other incidents involving public expressions of faith, have drawn attention to how religion features in everyday life. These developments have raised questions about the relationship between modern technological progress and traditional religious practice.

Election bells ringing in Nepal: Can ousted premier Oli return to power?

By Nava Thakuria* Nepal is preparing for a national election necessitated by the collapse of KP Sharma Oli’s government at the height of a Gen Z rebellion (youth uprising) in September 2025. The polls are scheduled for 5 March. The Himalayan nation last conducted a general election in 2022, with the next polls originally due in 2027. However, following the dissolution of Nepal’s lower house of Parliament last year by President Ram Chandra Poudel, the electoral process began under the patronage of an interim government installed on 12 September under the leadership of retired Supreme Court judge Sushila Karki. The Hindu-majority nation of over 29 million people will witness more than 3,400 electoral candidates, including 390 women, representing 68 political parties as well as independents, vying for 165 seats in the 275-member House of Representatives.

Jayanthi Natarajan "never stood by tribals' rights" in MNC Vedanta's move to mine Niyamigiri Hills in Odisha

By A Representative The Odisha Chapter of the Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD), which played a vital role in the struggle for the enactment of historic Forest Rights Act, 2006 has blamed former Union environment minister Jaynaynthi Natarjan for failing to play any vital role to defend the tribals' rights in the forest areas during her tenure under the former UPA government. Countering her recent statement that she rejected environmental clearance to Vendanta, the top UK-based NMC, despite tremendous pressure from her colleagues in Cabinet and huge criticism from industry, and the claim that her decision was “upheld by the Supreme Court”, the CSD said this is simply not true, and actually she "disrespected" FRA.

With infant mortality rate of 5, better than US, guarantee to live is 'alive' in Kerala

By Nabil Abdul Majeed, Nitheesh Narayanan In 1945, two years prior to India's independence, the current Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, was born into a working-class family in northern Kerala. He was his mother’s fourteenth child; of the thirteen siblings born before him, only two survived. His mother was an agricultural labourer and his father a toddy tapper. They belonged to a downtrodden caste, deemed untouchable under the Indian caste system.

Stands 'exposed': Cavalier attitude towards rushed construction of Char Dham project

By Bharat Dogra* The nation heaved a big sigh of relief when the 41 workers trapped in the under-construction Silkyara-Barkot tunnel (Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand) were finally rescued on November 28 after a 17-day rescue effort. All those involved in the rescue effort deserve a big thanks of the entire country. The government deserves appreciation for providing all-round support.

Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb: Akbar to Shivaji -- the cross-cultural alliances that built India

By Ram Puniyani What is Indian culture? Is it purely Hindu, or a blend of many influences? Today, Hindu right-wing advocates of Hindutva claim that Indian culture is synonymous with Hindu culture, which supposedly resisted "Muslim invaders" for centuries. This debate resurfaced recently in Kolkata at a seminar titled "The Need to Protect Hinduism from Hindutva."

Drowning or conspiracy? Singapore findings deepen questions over Zubeen Garg’s death

By Nava Thakuria* For millions of fans of Zubeen Garg, who died under unexplained circumstances in Singapore on 19 September last year, disturbing news has emerged from the island nation. Its police authorities have stated that the iconic Assamese singer died while intoxicated and swimming in the sea without a mandatory life jacket.

Search This Blog