News Analysis India

Tag: minority communities

  • J&K militants attempting to recreate early 1990 situation, scare minorities: Experts

    Express News Service

    SRINAGAR: Security experts are sensing a shift in the pattern of militant violence in Jammu and Kashmir as four non-Muslim civilians have been gunned down in the Valley in the last five days. They feel the militants are aiming to create fear among minority communities and recreate the situation of early 1990s in Kashmir. 

    “Yes, there is a pattern in the violence. It is to create panic and gain relevance on the part of militant organisations functioning under the ISI’s umbrella,” Lt Gen (Retd) Syed Ata Hasnain told TNIE. 

    He said the militants outfits could be aiming to recreate the situation of the early 1990s, whereby political Islam could be brought to bear through the purging of minorities. “It may have succeeded then to an extent but we are far stronger today to not fall prey to the designs of our adversaries,” said Lt Gen Hasnain, who had also served as GoC of Army’s Srinagar-based 15 Corps.  

    Retired J&K police chief S P Vaid said militants kept on changing their plans. “First they were targeting BJP leaders and now they are targeting minority community members. They want to spread fear and terror,” he said. Vaid said there was a clear change in the pattern of violence as militants wanted to prevent their own casualties by avoiding direct confrontation with security personnel and targeting soft targets. The former police chief said killings would continue till the militant group involved in such killings was neutralised. 

    Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir Vijay Kumar said due to the killing of large number of militants, their handlers across got frustrated and changed their strategy.  “In all such cases, militants have been using pistols. These acts are committed by newly recruited militants or those who are about to join militant rank.”

  • SC orders correction in transfer plea on grant of minority status of five communities

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked a BJP leader to make “necessary correction” in his plea, seeking transfer of cases from several high courts to it against the Centre’s notification to declare five communities – Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsees – as minorities.

    The high courts at Delhi, Meghalaya and Guwahati are seized of the petitions challenging the Constitutional validity of section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, under which the notification was issued on October 23, 1993.

    The notification had declared the five communities as minorities across the country, leading to a situation where majority population of Sikhs in Punjab and Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir are availing of the benefits meant for minorities, the transfer petition alleged.

    A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde was hearing the plea filed by lawyer and BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay seeking transfer of all cases from high courts to the apex court for an authoritative pronouncement on the issue.

    At the outset, the bench, also comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, pointed out the fact that the litigants before the high courts were not properly named as parties by Upadhyay in his transfer petition.

    Senior advocate CS Vaidyanathan, appearing for Upadhyay, said the necessary corrections were made in copies, but inadvertently, they could not be made in petitions meant for the judges. “List the matter next week. In the meantime, necessary correction be made in the petition,” the bench said in its order.

    The petition, filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, said that in order to avoid multiplicity of litigations and conflicting views, the transfer plea has been moved before the apex court.

    Arbitrary and irrational disbursement of minority benefits to majority infringes upon the fundamental right to the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, the plea said.

    The petition said the Hindus, who are a majority community according to national data, are a minority in several north-eastern states besides Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.

    However, the Hindu community is deprived of the benefits that are available to the minority communities in these states, the plea said, adding that the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) should reconsider the definition of minority in this context.

    The plea has sought to declare section 2(c) of the NCM Act 1992 void and inoperative for being arbitrary, unreasonable and offending.

    The definition of minority, according to Article 29-30 of the Constitution, has left leakages in the hands of the State, which shall be misused and are being misused for political benefits, the petition said, adding that the minority status be granted to Hindus in states where the number of the community members has decreased.

    The plea has sought the minority status for Hindus in six states and two Union territories, where the number of the community members has fallen according to Census 2011.

    The petition has stated that according to the 2011 Census, Hindus are a minority in six states – Mizoram (2.75 per cent), Nagaland (8.75 per cent), Meghalaya (11.53 per cent), Arunachal Pradesh (29 per cent), Manipur (31.39 per cent), Punjab (38.40 per cent) – and in the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir (28.44 per cent) and Lakshadweep (2.5 per cent).

    Their minority rights are being siphoned off illegally and arbitrarily to the majority population because neither the Centre nor the state governments have notified Hindus as a ‘minority’ under the National Commission for Minorities Act. “Therefore, Hindus are being deprived of their basic rights,” the plea has said.

    It has pointed out that Christians are in majority in Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland and there is a significant Christian population in Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Manipur, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, but they are treated as a minority community.

    It said that Sikhs are in majority in Punjab and there is a significant Sikh population in Delhi, Chandigarh and Haryana, but they are treated as a minority community. Muslims are a majority in Lakshadweep (96.20 per cent), Jammu and Kashmir (68.30 per cent) and there is a significant representation of the community in Assam (34.20 per cent), West Bengal (27.5 per cent), Kerala (26.60 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (19.30 per cent) and Bihar (18 per cent).

    However, they are enjoying the minority status and communities, which are real minorities, are not getting their legitimate share, jeopardising their basic rights guaranteed under Articles 14, 15, 19 and 21 of the Constitution, the petition has said.