New Delhi: A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in the apex Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday seeking minority status for Hindus in eight states of India citing continuous denial of basic human rights to them.
“According to 2011 Census, Hindus are minority in eight states i.e. Lakshadweep (2.5%), Mizoram (2.75%), Nagaland (8.75%), Meghalaya (11.53%), J & K (28.44%), Arunachal Pradesh (29%), Manipur (31.39%) and Punjab (38.40%). Hindus must be notified as minority community in these eight states so that they are given legitimate benefits,” the petition, filed by Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and advocate Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay, states.
The PIL asserts that Muslims are majority in Lakshdweep (96.20%) and Jammu and Kashmir (68.30%) and there is significant population in Assam (34.20%), West Bengal (27.5%), Kerala (26.60%), Uttar Pradesh (19.30%) and Bihar (18%) but they are enjoying the “minority” status, and the communities which are real minorities, are not getting their legitimate share.
“Christians are majority in Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland and there is significant population in Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Manipur, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, but they are treated as minority. Likewise, Sikhs are majority in Punjab and there is significant population in Delhi, Chandigarh and Haryana but they are also treated as minority,” Upadhyay said in the petition.
In the plea, he adds that the minority rights of Hindus in these states are being siphoned off illegally and arbitrarily to the majority population because neither the central nor the state governments have notified Hindus as a “minority” under the National Commission for Minority Act.
“Hindus are being deprived of their basic rights, guaranteed under Articles 25 to 30 of the Constitution. It is the duty of the state to move beyond the minority-majority binary communal politics, which ironically passes for secularism in this country,” the plea states.
According to Upadhyay, the central government’s notification on definition of minority community should be repealed as it was against the spirit of the Constitution.
“A repeal except the state of Jammu and Kashmir be served from Section 1 (2) of the National Commission for Minority Act, as it is invalid and against the Constitution and its basic structure. The denial of minority rights to the actual religious and linguistic minorities is a violation of fundamental rights,” the petition read adding that there also was an attempt to skew level playing field in the private education sector against the Hindu community.
“In last three years, the government has forced the closure of 7659 non-minority schools. Moreover, in last three years, budget increase for minorities is far higher compared to other groups like Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes,” the PIL states.
