By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net
Bhopal : All India Jain Minority Forum, (AIJMF), has stressed the need that the Union Minority Affairs Ministry, HRD Ministry as also the Government of India should put their heads together to work out a consistent minority policy framework.
The AIJMF secretary general Bal Patil in a Press statement cautioned the Jain community to remain alert and said: “we must wait and watch” the proposed Indian Constitutional 103rd Amendment to be tabled in the ongoing monsoon session of Parliament. The amendment carries a proposal to redefine the religious minorities on the basis of their population in individual States.
Patil pointed out to the news items datelined New Delhi and Shillong published in Organizer and Nagaland Post respectively where it has been said that the very concept of minority status may soon change diametrically with the proposed 103rd amendment to the Constitution making minorities like Christians lose their exclusive status in states of Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland where they are numerically in majority.
Interestingly, Hindus in these states would be treated as minority and enjoy the status, the proposed amendment that is bound to create a storm, the Organizer report said.
The 103rd Constitutional Amendment seeks to have state-wise minority status rather than national status, as is the norm now. Minorities in states will be decided through a presidential notification in consultation with the state government, the Organizer said.
Patil, who is ex-member, Maharashtra State Minorities Commission also, noted that the above are very important news items with regard to the proposed Constitutional 103rd Amendment prompted by the Supreme Court of India judgment in Bal Patil & Another vs. Union of India in 2005 which laid down that the minority status can be determined by the States..
It must be recalled that the 103rd Amendment as proposed originally is for giving constitutional status to the National Commission for Minorities and to invest it with quasi-judicial powers because it lacks teeth, the statement said.
Therefore, a necessary clarification is a must as to the fate of the National Commission for Minorities. But it is still not clear what will happen to the National Commission for Minorities and also to the National religious minorities viz. Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and
Zoroastrians (Parsis). The proposed Amendment will be meaningless unless and until the National religious minorities are also abolished. In that case only true “national minorities” will be Jains and Buddhists, Patil claimed.
Patil has made an earnest appeal to the Jain community in India and worldwide to note very carefully the two news items published in Organizer and Nagaland Post because of their far-reaching implications on the religious minority status of the Indian minorities. ([email protected])