Govt appoints 5 to the member-less National Commission for Minorities

Facing opposition criticism over the delay in filling the vacancies in the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), the government on Wednesday appointed its chairman and four members, over two months after the panel was left without a single member.

While making these appointments, the government also departed from the tradition of nominating retired judges or bureaucrats as the panel's chairperson and members.

Gayarul Hasan, a littleknown social activist from Uttar Pradesh, will be the chairperson of the Commission.

BJP leader from Kerala George Kurian, former Maharashtra minister Sulekha Kumbhare, Jain representative from Gujarat Sunil Singhi and Vada Dasturji Khurshed, chief priest of Udvada Athornan Anjuman, are the other members of the panel, sources in the Union Minority Affairs Ministry said.

The process of appointing two more members of the panel, which is expected to be functional in a day or two, "is on", the sources said.

This is for the first time that a Jain member will be on the panel after the community was notified as a religious 'minority' in January 2014.

The NCM, which has the responsibility of protecting the interests of the minority communities, had no members since March. Its members have tenure of three years, if not extended by the government. "So far the tradition was that the Commission had a retired judge or bureaucrat as its chairperson or member. "It is perhaps for the first time that all the members are social activists who know the ground realities," the sources said.

When asked, Minister of State for Minority Affairs (Independent Charge) Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi confirmed the development.

"These are very capable people. We hope they will do justice to the issues relating to minorities," Naqvi added.

Former NCM member Captain Praveen Davar, who demitted office in January this year, welcomed the development, but said the government could have filled vacancies "much earlier" after the Commission members started retiring in phases from September 2015.