Minority panels’ conference to be held Wednesday
By IANSTuesday, March 30, 2010
NEW DELHI - The annual conference of minority commissions is being held here Wednesday to ascertain the needs of Indian minority communities, identify solutions for the issues related to their socio-economic problems and facilitate focus of governmental action towards them.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram will inaugurate the day-long state minorities commissions’ conference organised by the National Commissions for Minorities.
The main focus of the conclave will be the new 15-point programme drawn up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his first term for the welfare of the minorities, said an official from the minority affairs ministry.
The conference is being held in the backdrop of Ranganath Misra commission report that has recommended 15 percent of job quota for minorities. However, it is unlikely that the report would be deliberated upon during the meeting as parliament is yet to discuss it. The report was tabled in the Lok Sabha last year amid severe opposition from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Of India’s 1.2 billion population, Muslims form the largest minority at close to 14 percent, followed by Christians at 2.3 percent, Sikhs at 1.9 percent, Buddhists at 0.8 percent, Jains at 0.4 percent and others including Parsis at 0.6 percent.
Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will be the guest of honour at the conclave.
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April 8, 2010: 8:28 pm
It is good to your report mentions Jains also. But are you aware Jains are still not declared a National Minority on par with the other National Minorities-Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) despite the fact that Jains have been declared minority in 9 States in India constituting a population of 90%. . I have always valued Mr.Syed Shahabuddin’s unsparing support to the Jain Minority cause and therefore I am concerned to draw attention to another great drawback amounting almost to a fraud the omission of the Jain minority who are declared a minority in eight States amounting to 88% of their total population India from the benefit of sumptuous benefits announced under the Prime Minister’s 15-Point Plan. I have always valued Mr.Shahabuddin’s comments in his article Indian Supreme Court Judgement Obiter Dicta Places Hindu Religion Above All Religions on the Supreme Court judgment in Bal Patil & Anr. v. Union of India & Ors. decided on 08/08/2005 “His historiography is full of flaws…All constitutional safeguards and assurances under the Constitution and in international law shall be reduced to zero if the distinct identity of any religious group, howsoever small, is denied and any group is forced to relate to Hinduism as a sect or sub-sect. The Sikhs and the Jains and the Buddhists will not accept Hindu hegemony on the ground that they are all branches of the same tree, which has sprung from the same soil. Dharmadhikari J.’s views clearly reflect the Hindutva philosophy. It is time that the Supreme Court frees itself of any lurking intellectual subservience to the Hindutva philosophy.” Jains have been declared a minority in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, West Bengal, Uttaranchala and Jharkhand States . The total population of the Jain minority declared minority thus comes to 3,678, 551. The total Jain population in India is 4,225, 053. Thus the percentage of the Jain minority population comes to 88%. Yet being less than 50% to constitute a minority population in the whole of India is no longer taken into account. The question is : Are all the benefits only meant for the national minorities so-called? I do not mean any disrespect to the national minorities so designated under the National Minorities Commission act. But I am constrained to take a strong exception to the blatantly discriminatory manner in which the Jains declared as a minority in various States such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal, Uttaranchala, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan comprising 88% of the total Jain population in India the Jain minority students in these States are specifically excluded from the benefit of the Pre and Post-Matriculation Scholarships announced under the Prime Minister’s 15-Point Plan in co-operation with similar State Government packages because Jains are not a National Minority!!. I am constrained to state that this smacks of being Jain Apartheid. A meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on 19th December, 2008 approved a proposal to introduce the Constitution 103rd Amendment Bill to define minority. ” This Bill is about the power to define a minority. The Supreme Court directed the Centre to decide the issue of giving minority status to Jains in Bal Patil vs. Union of India in 2005. A number of orders have been passed by the Supreme Court in this behalf,” Home Minister, P.Chidambaram said. It is inconceivable however that this amendment will be passed in the Indian Parliament because the main national minorities, Muslim, Christian and Sikh are not willing to arrive at a definition of minority status on the basis of State population because Sikhs are a majority in Punjab State as recently ruled by the Supreme Court of India and Christians are a majority in North-Eastern States Mizoram, Meghalaya and Muslims are a majority in Jammu & Kashmir. Besides the passage of this Bill will require two-thirds majority. The Jains should be taken out of the purview of this proposed amendment to the Constituition. But the Government of India has failed to pay any attention to the persistent appeals from the Jain community. Thus Jains, Budddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) remain the national religious minorities in the real sense of the term’. I would like to give URL of my recent speech at the Tuebingen University (Germany) in the International Workshop on Jain Minority Issue Jain Religion and British Rule in 19th Centruy and Early 20th Century pm 19-20th February, 2010: https://www.uni-tuebingen.de//uni/aid/Jaina%20WS.pdf |
Bal Patil