“The Hindus will ever be ready to grant equal rights and representation to all minor communities in India in legislatures and services, civil and political life in proportion to population and merit. The Hindus although they are in overwhelming majority will still waive their right of claiming any preferential treatment, and special prerogatives which in fact in every other nation are due to the major community. But the Hindus will never tolerate the absurd and unheard of claims of the minorities to have any preferential treatment, weightages or special favours over and above what the majority community obtains.”  

Sardar Patel had said “In the long run it would be in the interests of all to forget that there is anything like a majority or a minority in this country and that in India there is only one community.”

In his address to the Constituent Assembly during the debate on minority rights Jawaharlal Nehru said, “(In) a full-blooded democracy, if you seek to give safeguards to a minority, and a relatively small minority, you isolate it. May be you protect it to a slight extent, but at what cost? At the cost of isolating it and keeping it away from the main current in which the majority is going - I am talking on the political plane of course - at the cost of forfeiting that inner sympathy and fellow-feeling with the majority.”

The Indian State has steadily moved away from the vision of One Nation, One People. India has a determined and astute religious minority that is fully alive to its long-term political and strategic objectives. It also has a clueless majority led by a short-sighted intellectual and political class. Both these factors have ensured that institutional mechanisms continue to be created by the State to address the ever-escalating imaginary grievances of the minorities. In some cases, these mechanisms were simply handed over to the minorities on a platter though no corresponding demand had been made by them. Over the years, these mechanisms have become firmly entrenched and have acquired more teeth. They now threaten to undermine the Indian State itself.

The following is an ever-expanding list of Government Programmes and Institutions dealing exclusively with the Minorities:

1.   Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India (established 2006)

2. Prime Minister’s new (2006) 15-point Programme for the Development of (under Ministry of Minority Affairs)

3. a) National Integration Council, presently with the Ministry of Home Affairs; b) Communal Harmony Award

4. a) Office of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities (under Ministry of Minority Affairs); b) National Commission for Minorities (under Ministry of Minority Affairs); c) Central Wakf Council (under Ministry of Minority Affairs); d) Maulana Azad Educational Foundation (under Ministry of Minority Affairs); e) National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation (under Ministry of Minority Affairs)

5. Haj Committee – presently with the Ministry of External Affairs

6. a)  Maulana Azad National Urdu University, presently with the Ministry of HRD; b)  National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language; c)  Madrasa Modernization Programme; d)  National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI), established 2004.

The National Commission for Minorities (hereafter referred to as NCM) is one of the oldest institutional mechanisms created by the Indian State to “safeguard the interests of the Minorities” - a classic case of an institution being created for Minorities without a corresponding demand from them. The NCM also exemplifies how a Frankenstein created by the Indian State continues to be invested with ever-increasing powers such that it now aspires to become “a State within a State”. The NCM is also a depressing example of the abject failure of the so-called Hindu nationalist political leadership to stand up to the minority-appeasement politics of the secularist political class.

Genesis and growth of NCM

The idea of a national-level Minorities Commission was mentioned in the Manifesto of the Janata Party during the 1977 General Elections. The Draft Committee of the Manifesto included L.K. Advani besides three Socialists and one Gandhian. The Manifesto promised “to make suitable institutional arrangements for the protection of the Constitutional and civil rights of the Minorities and other weaker sections of the society.”

After the Janata Party assumed power in 1977, a semi-government organization called the Minorities Commission was born in Delhi. It was piloted by then Home Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh and had the blessings of Prime Minister Morarji Desai. On 12 January 1978, the Union Home Ministry notified a Government Resolution (No. II-160/2/2/77-NID) that said, “Despite the safeguards provided in the Constitution and the laws in force, there persists among the Minorities a feeling of inequality and discrimination. In order to preserve secular traditions and to promote National integration, the Government of India attaches the highest importance to the enforcement of safeguards provided for the Minorities and is of the firm view that effective institutional arrangements are urgently required for the enforcement and implementation of all the safeguards provided for the minorities in the Constitution in the Central and State laws and in Government policies and administrative schemes enunciated from time to time. The Government of India has, therefore, resolved to set up a Minorities Commission to safeguard the interests of the Minorities whether based on religion or language” (In 1988, the Commission’s Charter was amended to exclude linguistic minorities from its purview).

There is presently a clamour for conferring constitutional status on the NCM. What is not widely known is that such a status had been envisaged by the Morarji Government from the very beginning. On 03 August 1978, the Government introduced in the Lok Sabha, the Constitution (Forty-Sixth) Amendment Bill 1978 which among other things made room for a Constitutionally sanctioned Minorities Commission to “inspire greater confidence among the Minorities.” There was severe criticism from several legal and constitutional experts; V.P. Bhartiya called the Commission a “Phoenix” and condemned the Government for “engrafting this foreign organism to the equality postulate of the Constitution”. Though the Bill lapsed, the Morarji Government was undeterred and introduced the Constitution (Fifty-First) Amendment Bill 1979 which again fell for lack of support. The Morarji Government made another unsuccessful attempt in that direction in a specially extended Lok Sabha session. Mercifully for the Hindus, this Government had to chicken out after being slapped with a no-confidence motion.

It is noteworthy that former Chief Justice of India, M.H. Beg, who headed the Minorities Commission from 1981 to 1988, in his very first report forcefully recommended that “the Minorities Commission should be replaced with or merged into a National Integration-cum-Human Rights Commission”. Chairman Justice Beg repeated and elaborated upon this recommendation in the next annual report of the Minorities Commission and even put forth the idea of replacing the Minorities Commission with a National Integration-cum-Human Rights Commission at a Conference of State Minorities Commissions and Boards held in Delhi in January 1984.

Though the Congress is perceived, often rightly, of being guilty of minority appeasement, successive Congress Governments under Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi had no plans to give either constitutional or even ordinary legislative support to the Commission or to arm it with powers exercisable under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952. The Union Welfare Minister in the two Houses of Parliament on 25 November and 02 December 1988 said there was no justification for such demands. The Congress first promised to accord constitutional status to the Commission before the 1991 General Elections. But that was to come later.

A proposal to grant statutory status to the Minorities Commission was made in the election manifesto of the National Front led by V.P. Singh. In pursuance of this promise, the V.P. Singh-led government planned to give statutory and even constitutional status to the Minorities Commission. However, the Constitution (Sixty-Fifth Amendment) Act 1990 did not equate the Minorities Commission with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. As per the statement made by Ram Vilas Paswan in the Lok Sabha in 1992, this could not be done because “the men of BJP were with us in the Government” in 1990.

The present NCM is a creature that came into existence following the National Commission for Minorities Act 1992 brought by the Narasimha Rao-led United Front Government. The Act came into force on 17 May 1992. The debate on this Bill was opened by L.K. Advani who delivered a marathon speech opposing the Bill. Advani was candid enough to hold himself guilty for having been party to the creation of the Minorities Commission. He said the manifesto of the Janata Party did not commit itself to a Minorities Commission but only spoke of a Civil Rights Commission, and claimed he was “hamstrung” while in Government (incidentally the secularists can also claim to be hamstrung by the compulsions of power politics when they make demands and pass laws to appease minorities). Advani also raised some very valid objections to the proposed Act.

The official notification of the Act and the composition of the first seven-member statutory National Commission for Minorities were announced by two separate Government notifications issued on 17 May 1993.

In its manifesto for the 1998 General Elections, the BJP promised to wind up the NCM and entrust its responsibilities to the National Human Rights Commission. After the NDA government came to power, some Opposition members asked Prime Minister Vajpayee in Parliament to state his Government’s policy about the NCM. The Prime Minister assured the members that there was no threat to the existence of the NCM. He was presumably hamstrung by the fact that winding up the NCM did not figure in the Common Minimum Programme of the NDA.

Various State-level Minorities Commissions are in place in different States - Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal have made the State Minorities Commission a statutory body. The Minorities Commissions in Maharashtra, Manipur and Punjab do not have statutory status. Assam, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh have non-statutory Minorities Boards. The setting up of State Minorities Commission is under process in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Puducherry, and under consideration in Kerala, while a Bill towards the same has been passed by the Legislative Assembly in Tripura and submitted to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs for approval. The state of Haryana has specifically rejected the NCM demand to set up State Minorities Commissions.

To the credit of the BJP, during 1995-1996, the Shiv Sena-BJP Government in Maharashtra and the BJP Government in Rajasthan had wound up the State Minorities Commissions and a similar exercise was undertaken in Uttar Pradesh in 1999. The case related to the Maharashtra State Minorities Commission, popularly called the Misbah Alam Case. The State Government stated that “it is the policy of the Government that all citizens are equal and there should not be any discrimination of Minority-Majority”. The Supreme Court expressed inability to issue a directive to the State Government in this regard since there was no statute making it obligatory for the State Government to reconstitute the Commission. It may be borne in mind that if the NCM were granted Constitutional status in future, it will be obligatory for all State Governments to constitute
State Minorities Commissions without the option of dissolving them.  

Mandate and powers of the NCM

The definition of the word’ Minority’ is unclear in the NCM Act; it means “a community notified as such by the Central Government”. It includes Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Sikhs and Buddhists. A three judge bench of the Supreme Court consisting of Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti, Justice D.M. Dharmadhikari and Justice P.K. Balasubramanyan rejected the plea by the Jain community to the Supreme Court to advise the Central Government to notify it as a minority under Section 2 [c] of the NCM Act, 1992, in accordance with the recommendation of the NCM (Bal Patil Case; CA 4730 of 1999; 08 August 2005). The learned Bench observed, “The constitutional ideal, which can be gathered from the group of articles in the Constitution under Chapters of Fundamental Rights and Fundamental Duties, is to create social conditions where there remains no necessity to shield or protect rights of minority or majority.

“The above mentioned Constitutional goal has to be kept in view by the Minorities Commissions set up at the Central or State levels. Commissions set up for minorities have to direct their activities to maintain integrity and unity of India by gradually eliminating the minority and majority classes. If, only on the basis of a different religious thought or less numerical strength or lack of health, wealth, education, power or social rights, a claim of a section of Indian society to the status of ‘minority’ is considered and conceded, there would be no end to such claims in a society as multi-religious and multi-linguistic as India is. A claim by one group of citizens would lead to a similar claim by another group of citizens and conflict and strife would ensure. As such, the Hindu society being based on caste is itself divided into various minority groups. Each caste claims to be separate from the other. In a caste-ridden Indian society, no section or distinct group of people can claim to be in majority. All are minorities amongst Hindus. Many of them claim such status because of their small number and expect protection from the State on the ground that they are backward. If each minority group feels afraid of the other group, an atmosphere of mutual fear and distrust would be created posing serious threat to the integrity of our Nation. That would sow seeds of multi-nationalism in India. It is, therefore, necessary that Minority Commission should act in a manner so as to prevent generating feelings of multinationalism in various sections of people of Bharat.”

An application by the petitioners to modify this order came before a three-Judge Bench with the Chief Justice of India on 09 July, 2010 and the Honourable Chief Justice of India has referred it to a five-Judge Bench since “the matter involves issues of religious minority rights under the Constitution.”

Various States such as Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttaranchal, have however notified Jains as a religious minority in accordance with their respective State Minority Commission Act. The Jain community has been declared as religious minority community in Rajasthan for purpose of Article 30 and for no other purpose. The
NCM Act does not in effect include minorities like Jews and Bahia’s in its purview as these communities have not been notified as such. The Act does not extend to Jammu and Kashmir.

Though the State has to be regarded as a unit for determining religious minority for the purpose of Article 30 of the Constitution, the Act does not deal with Hindus wherever they constitute a State-level minority as in five States and one Union Territory. To its credit, the NCM prepared a special 72-page report titled “NCM Actions and recommendations for the Hindus” in April 1999.

The NCM performs all or any of the following functions, namely:-

(a) evaluate the progress of the development of Minorities under the Union and States

(b) monitor the working of the safeguards provided in the Constitution and in laws enacted by Parliament and the State Legislatures

(c) make recommendations for the effective implementation of safeguards for the protection of the interests of Minorities by the Central Government or the State Governments

(d) look into specific complaints regarding deprivation of rights and safeguards of the Minorities and take up such matters with the appropriate authorities

(e) cause studies to be undertaken into problems arising out of any discrimination against Minorities and recommend measures for their removal

(f) conduct studies, research and analysis on the issues relating to socio-economic and educational development of Minorities

(g) suggest appropriate measures in respect of any Minority to be undertaken by the Central Government or the State Governments

(h) make periodical or special reports to the Central Government on any matter pertaining to Minorities and in particular the difficulties confronted by them

(i) any other matter which may be referred to it by the Central Government

The NCM Act mandates that the Central Government shall cause the recommendations to be laid before each House of Parliament along with a memorandum explaining the action taken or proposed to be taken on the recommendations relating to the Union and the reasons for the non-acceptance, if any, of any of such recommendations. A similar action is to be taken where a State Government is concerned.

Importantly, the NCM has all the powers of a civil court including summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person from any part of India and examining him on oath, requiring the discovery and production of any document, receiving evidence of affidavits, requisitioning any public record or copy thereof from any court or office and issuing commissions for the examination of witnesses and documents, except when the matter is sub-judice. Such powers as are vested in the NCM are without parallel in any other part of the world.

Political role of NCM

Being a statutory body, the NCM is supposed to be apolitical. Yet there have been numerous occasions when the NCM and State Minorities Commissions have openly taken political stands.

For example, in September 1997, a teenaged tribal boy had been repeatedly sodomized by a Christian priest in a Christian boys’ hostel in Dumka, South Bihar. When protests, mainly by enraged tribals, erupted in Dumka, the then NCM chairman Prof. Tahir Mahmood blamed the protests on the sizeable BJP presence in Dumka!

In December 1998, the NCM wrote to the Election Commission asking it to prevent the use of words like “votebank”, “appeasement”, “concessions” in reference to Minorities in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. In July 1999, the NCM Chairman recommended individually to the heads of all major political parties that they should ensure adequate representation of minorities in Parliament and all State Legislatures. He urged political parties to ensure at last 100 seats for Minorities in the next Lok Sabha. In August 1999, Rev. Dr. James Massey, Member NCM,  used government transport to attend a press conference at St. Savior's High School Meeting Hall, Ahmednanagar, Maharashtra, where the forthcoming Parliamentary and Assembly elections were discussed. Dr. Massey exhorted the Christian community to play a dynamic and important role in the forthcoming elections and asked the members of the church “to vote for such persons who will fight against Fascism, Brahminism and Manuvad and protect the poor, the dalits and marginalised from such ‘isms’.”

Such statements were made at the said press conference and pamphlets asking Christian voters to desist from voting for BJP and to vote for Congress-1 and the Nationalist Congress Party were circulated. Dr. Massey was arrested u/s 125 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1951, which deals with ‘an attempt to promote on grounds of religion - community - feelings of hatred between different classes of the citizens of India’. In Tamil Nadu, crossing all limits of propriety, the Chairman of the State Minorities Commission who was a Christian missionary, actively campaigned for the local ruling party in the 1999 General Elections.

Demands and compliance

The NCM has been faithfully echoing the demands of powerful fundamentalist Islamic and Christian missionary lobbies. These demands are placed as “recommendations” to the Central and State governments. Following is a list of some of the recommendations (compliance indicated in brackets):

2.     In 2003-2004, NCM recommended that school textbooks should be scrutinized to see if they contained any material that creates hatred among the minorities. (The New National  Curriculum Framework 2005 addressed these concerns and textbooks are being revised accordingly for several classes. The NCERT/CBSE has already introduced revised text books for Classes 1, III, VI, IX and XI. NCERT sends the proposed new books in advance to NCM so its Members can go through the portions pertaining to different religions)

3.     There should be proportionate representation of minorities in the Armed Forces and Police. Officers belonging to minority communities should be given so-called ‘sensitive’ assignments so they can play a more useful role and provide a healing touch. (Central Para-Military Forces have been asked to ensure sufficient representation to minorities through making minority community candidates aware of the employment opportunities and the incentives/prospects available in the Forces. Recruitment Boards have been advised to send special information to minority community run institutions/organizations with a request to encourage candidates from these communities to apply for recruitment in Central Para-military forces. Further, the State Governments/UT Administrations have been advised that State police forces should represent the social structure in their respective States so that the forces retain their secular character).

4.     Suitable steps should be taken to increase share of minority communities in public/private employment. (All public sector undertakings have been advised that wherever a Selection Committee/Board is constituted for making recruitment to 10 or more vacancies in Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ posts/services, it shall be mandatory to have one member belonging to a minority community in such committees/boards. Administrative Ministers have been requested to direct the officials in all public sector undertakings to ensure the interests of minorities are taken care of. The Ministry of Railways, Govt. of India has already issued necessary instructions to all Indian Railways/ PUs to ensure representation of Minorities in Selection Committees/Boards).

5.     Adequate flow of credit to minority communities for nationalized banks for trade and      business may be ensured. (All commercial banks, both in the public and private sector, have already been instructed by the Reserve Bank of India to ensure smooth flow of credit to minority communities so that these communities can secure benefits flowing from various Government sponsored schemes. The RBI has also issued directions to banks specifically to promote financial inclusion. Further, Reserve Bank also monitors the credit flow to minorities. Public Sector Banks have set State-wise targets for lending to Minority Communities as a percentage of Priority Sector Advances for 2009-10).

7.     On 27 October 2000, the NCM recommended to the Ministry of Law that while appointing Government Counsels, effort should be made to ensure that Members of the minority communities are adequately represented.

8.    NCM made a statutory recommendation to UGC and  M/o Human Resources Development for grant of exemption to candidates belonging to minority communities from the requirement of clearing UGC’s NET for 15 years for their appointment against teaching posts in all Colleges and Universities.

9.    Draft bill of the Equal Opportunities Commission prepared by the NCM (Bill under process of inter-ministerial consultation; some Ministers want the EOC to be limited for Minorities only)

10.  Reservation for Dalit Christians and Muslims at par with SCs /STs should be considered by the Government in all seriousness and all facilities extended.

State within a State

For some time now, the NCM is seeking Constitutional status for itself, ostensibly “to inspire greater confidence among the minorities and to make the NCM effective in safeguarding their interests.” The Constitution (One Hundred and Third Amendment) Bill 2004 for granting Constitutional status to the NCM is pending since 2004. In order to give constitutional status to NCM, the Government had introduced the Constitution (One Hundred and Third Amendment) Bill 2004, and the NCM (Repeal) Bill, in the Lok Sabha. These were examined by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment. Notices for official amendments and for consideration and passing of the Bills were sent to Lok Sabha in February 2009. But the House was adjourned on 26.2.09 and the Bill was not presented. With the dissolution of the 14th Lok Sabha, the Bills have lapsed.

The additional powers sought by the NCM are briefly given below:

(i)    Investigate and monitor (instead of just monitor) the working of safeguards provided in the Constitution and the laws enacted by Parliament and the State Legislatures

(iii)  Participate and advise in the planning process of socio-economic development of minorities and evaluate the progress of their development under the Union and any State.

Not content with its quasi-judicial nature (akin to a civil court), NCM has recommended insertion of a suitable provision to empower the Commission to take action under CrPC as and when its work as Civil Court is not responded to (for example enforcing the direction of the Commission like summons, orders etc.)

Way ahead

This needs joint efforts of Hindu organizations, and caste, sectarian and linguistic groups within the Hindu fold and like-minded non-Hindus. Parties such as the BJP that are perceived as Hindu nationalist should spell out their opposition clearly. To begin with, the BJP Governments in different States must scrap the State-level Minorities Commissions/Boards.

To conclude, one returns to Savarkar, “The Hindu Sanghatanists Party aims to base the future constitution of Hindusthan on the broad principle that all citizens should have equal rights and obligations irrespective of caste or creed, race or religion, - provided they avow and owe an exclusive and devoted allegiance to the Hindusthani State. The fundamental rights of liberty of speech, liberty of conscience, of worship, of association etc. will be enjoyed by all citizens alike. Whatever restrictions will be imposed on them in the interest of the public peace and order of National emergency will not be based on any religious or racial considerations alone but on common National grounds...

“No Constitution if it has to keep the integrity, sovereignty and strength of the National State safe, can go any further and that is all that is really required to safeguard any genuine special interests of the minorities as distinguished from those of the majority. Only that minority will insist to have still more and yet more to the last pound of flesh which in fact cherishes secret designs to disintegrate the State, to create a State within a State or altogether to subvert the National State and hold all others under its subjection”

(Presidential address to the Hindu Mahasabha, 21st session Calcutta 1939)

The author is a specialist in diabetes and hormone disorders. He has co-authored two books on diabetes for lay people. He has written Marathi books on religious demography, Islam and contemporary Buddhist-Muslim relations. The life and work of Veer Savarkar is a subject of his research. He has contributed to the development of www.savarkar.org, a website dedicated to the life, thought, work and relevance of Savarkar.