Plea to declare Hindus as minorities in 8 states

The Supreme Court has been moved for a declaration that Hindus are minorities in eight states in the country as per population figures from the Central Government.

In his PIL Ashwini Kumar Upadhyaya, spokesperson of the BJP submitted that the Centre through a Notification dated 23.10.1993 notified five communities viz. Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis as ‘minority’ community. Jain’s were also added in the list in 2014, but not the Hindus, though they are minority in eight States.

He said according to 2011 Census, Hindus are minority in eight States i.e. Lakshadweep (2.5%), Mizoram (2.75%), Nagaland (8.75%), Meghalaya (11.53%), J&K (28.44%), Arunachal Pradesh (29%), Manipur (31.39%) and Punjab (38.40%).

But, their minority rights are being siphoned off illegally and arbitrarily to the majority population because neither Central nor the State Governments have notified the Hindus as a ‘minority’. Therefore, Hindus are being deprived of their basic rights, guaranteed under the Articles 25 to 30 of the Constitution.

The petitioner said Muslims are majority in Lakshdweep (96.20%) and J&K (68.30%) and there is significant population in Assam (34.20%), West Bengal (27.5%), Kerala (26.60%), Uttar Pradesh (19.30%) and Bihar (18%).

However, they are enjoying the ‘minority’ status, and the communities which are real minorities, are not getting their legitimate share because of non-identification and non-notification of minorities at State level, thereby jeopardizing their basic rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

He said 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.