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| No minority rights to minority Hindus in 8 Hindu-minority states | | Shocker from BJP | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, July 24: The hope that the minority Hindus in the 8 Hindu-minority states across India, including Jammu & Kashmir, would be granted minority status and minority rights by the Central Government headed by the BJP has dashed to the ground. BJP leader and Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has told the Lok Sabha that the Union Government doesn't have the power to grant minority status to the minority Hindus in the 8 Hindu-minority states and that it is for the state governments to take a final call on the demand being raised by several Hindu minority groups in these 8 states.
In other words, the Union Minister has said that the majority communities in these 8 states shall continue to avail 75 Central schemes meant for the minority communities, including Muslim and Christian. Earlier, the Supreme Court had also taken an identical stand. However, it had disposed off the PIL filed by a Jammu-based advocate Ankur Sharma after the Jammu & Kashmir Government reassured the apex court that it would constitute a minorities' commission so that it could identify the minorities. It was a spurious argument given the fact that Jammu & Kashmir was a Muslim-majority state and Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Christians constituted minority communities. That time, Jammu & Kashmir was under the PDP-BJP coalition's rule with the BJP toeing the PDP line for the sake of power and profit and letting its constituencies in Jammu and Ladakh down.
The Muslims constitute nearly 60 per cent of the state population and the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Christian communities constitute almost 40 per cent of the state population. But the then state government withheld this information from the apex court. Besides, the role of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre in the apex court was also not encouraging. It was negative. It didn't take a clear-cut position to save the alliance between the PDP and the BJP.
The announcement made by the Union Minister has caused resentment among the minorities. Those who are vocal are expressing the view that the "BJP is no different from secular parties" and that "it has taken the anti-minorities stand in the 8 Hindu-minority states to appease the minorities ignoring the fact that these minorities hardly vote for the BJP". There are reports that many Jammu-based social organizations and Sabhas have made up their mind to lunch an agitation calculated to force the Union Government to grant minority status to the minority Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Christian communities in Jammu & Kashmir". A meeting of some groups on the issue took place on July 22 at Mahajan Sabha Jammu. And if reports are to be believed that are holding "a big meeting next Sunday to give a concrete shape to the movement that have planned to launch". |
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