Give minority status to Hindus in Punjab, J-K, 6 other states: PIL

NEW DELHI: A public interest litigation (PIL) filed in the Supreme Court has demanded that the Hindus be notified as a minority community in eight states, including Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, and be given the legitimate benefits meant for them.

Hindus are being treated as majority in these states despite being minority in population, says petitioner.

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 31

A public interest litigation (PIL) filed in the Supreme Court has demanded that the Hindus be notified as a minority community in eight states, including Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, and be given the legitimate benefits meant for them.

Besides Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, the PIL filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay has sought minority status for the Hindus in northeastern states of Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur; besides Lakshadweep.

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“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, the Sikhs are majority in Punjab and there is significant population in Delhi, Chandigarh and Haryana, but they are also treated as minority,” the petition read.

“Their minority rights are being siphoned off illegally and arbitrarily to the majority population because neither central nor the state governments have notified Hindus as a ‘minority’ under Section 2 (c) of the NCM Act. Therefore, the Hindus are being deprived of their basic rights, guaranteed under the Articles 25 to 30,” said Upadhyay, who is also a Delhi BJP leader.

He contended that the Hindus were being treated as majority in these states despite being minority in population and were illegally being deprived of benefits meant for minority communities. “The Union Government offered 20,000 scholarships in the field of technical education for minority students. In J&K, the Muslims are 68.3% and the government allotted 717 out of 753 scholarships to Muslim students, but none to Hindu students citing notification on minority communities dated October 23, 1993, which declares Muslim’s as minority, but not the Hindus,” the petitioner pointed out.

The top court is already seized of another PIL with regard to Jammu and Kashmir wherein petitioner Ankur Sharma—a Jammu-based advocate—alleged that the benefits meant for minorities were going to the majority community i.e. Muslims in the state. Sharma had alleged that crores of rupees were being squandered away as the state was spending money on unidentified minorities.