BJP-ruled states split over identification of religious minorities

In its affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court, the Centre said that 24 states and 6 Union Territories have furnished their views. Four states – Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Jharkhand and 2 UTs – Jammu and Kashmir and Lakshadweep, were yet to send their opinion.

While Gujarat said “we are comfortable with the present procedure of identifying minority communities”, Madhya Pradesh said it “is of the opinion that existing provision will be followed”. Karnataka said like the Centre, it, too, had declared Muslims, Christians, Buddhist, Jains, Sikhs and Parsis as minority communities following the recommendation of the Karnataka State Minorities Commission and “in view of this, the stand of the state of Karnataka is status quo”.

Maharashtra, where the BJP is in coalition with Shiv Sena, said the state had notified the six communities as religious minorities and those whose language is not Marathi are considered linguistic minorities. The state also favoured vesting the power to notify minorities remaining with the Centre. “Central government can use the census data and with the consultation of states notify the minority communities in concerned state,” it said.

Manipur while favouring state as the unit for determining religious minorities said “any religious group which constitutes less than 50% of the states population should be recognised as a religious minority group of the state”.

Punjab said it had enacted The Punjab State Commission for Minorities Act, 2012 and declared Jains as a minority in April 2013. It said that “in India, different communities are in majority or minority in different provinces/states…. Keeping in view the above as well as the peculiar geographical and social scenario of the state of Punjab, only the state government is in the position to better appreciate the interests, well being and problems of different sections/communities residing in the state. The state of Punjab being empowered to enact and notify…it is important that the state continues to do so in order to provide protection to minorities and safeguard their interests”.

Tamil Nadu, while admitting that the state has to be the unit as per T M A Pai case, also put forth a caveat. It said in the 2005 Bal Patil case, a three-judge bench had “cautioned” about the likely adverse consequences of encouraging demands for minority status on the basis of religion. “In view of the above it is considered that even if the unit is considered to be the state, religious minorities status cannot be conferred merely based on the population in a particular state but it should also take into account factors such as the actual or probable deprivation of the religious, cultural and educational rights and their socioeconomic status…”, it said.

Though BJP-ruled Goa and Tripura replied, but they did not answer the specific query.

Delhi’s AAP government put forth the view that followers of Judaism and Bahaism residing in the national capital are a religious minority and it will have no objection if the central government gives them minority status. It said that followers of Hinduism are not the religious minority in the national capital territory of Delhi “but the central government may declare the ‘migrated minority’ status to the followers of Hinduism who are the religious minority in their origin state (ie. J&K, Ladakh etc) and residing in Delhi after migration from their home state”.

Kerala favoured continuation of the existing provisions under National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004 and National Commission for Minority Act, 1992 “unless the Hon’ble Supreme Court takes a different view in the instant case”.

Himachal Pradesh favoured identification of minorities at the national level while YSR Congress-ruled Andhra Pradesh rooted for identifying religious minorities at state level. Himchal’s reply is of September 2022 when the BJP was still in power in the state.

The Union Territories which responded said as they did not have elected legislature, they would go by what the Centre says but Puducherry said Hindus were a majority in the UT and it had no Bahaism of Judaism.

West Bengal said the state had a Minorities Commission Act of 1996 under which it has declared those speaking Hindi, Urdu, Nepali, Odia, Santali and Gurmukhi as linguistic minorities and Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains as religious minorities. It said that “the power to declare a community as minority should vest with the state government/UTs”.

Odisha said that the six communities notified by the Centre are also minority in the state and added that as far as it is concerned, “there is no justification to remove any of these 6 minority communities from the list…”.