The scarecrow called the Minority Commission

The National Commission for Minorities, came into being in 1993 as per the National Commission for Minorities Act of 1992 under the Ministry of Minority Affairs to protect the constitutional rights and interests of religious minorities in the country, has literally been rendered an orphan. No successors have been appointed since Iqbal Singh Lalpura stepped down as chairman in April 2025. No successors are in place yet for the five other members who stepped down in December 2024. Having nobody at the helm has seriously affected the functioning of the commission that stands for educational institutions for minorities, the informed sources said. The Education Commission that should have functioned with a retired High Court Judge as chairman and three other members onboard is now surviving on lone member for the past two years. As per the 2011 Census, religious minorities in India make up 18.8 percent of the population. Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Christians, and Jains are the recognized minorities. The world has taken note of the fact that dominant minorities among them--Muslims and Christians--are being subjected to severe discrimination on a daily basis. There is no need of particularly reminding that in 2005, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appointed a nine-member committee headed by Justice Rajinder Sachar to study the educational, social and economic backwardness of the largest religious minority, Muslims, and submit a report and recommendations. The comprehensive report that the committee submitted, though a bit delayed, has revealed a grim picture of the plight of the Muslim minority in post-independent India. The indifference and apathy that the central and state governments has shown against taking proactive actions based on the findings of the Sachar Committee have been pointed out several times citing numerous facts.

The extremist Hindutva group ruling India for 11 years has enlisted this neglect itself as appeasement alongside terming the religious and cultural existence of Muslim and Christian minorities as a threat to the country, while continuing with the threat to eradicate them. It should be recalled that India announced the formation of the National Commission for Minorities in 1992 following a declaration by the United Nations Assembly on December 18, 1992. India cannot ever, being a member of the UN, evade or neglect this obligation. However, the Hindutva government led by Narendra Modi, flouting UN resolutions and declarations, heading forward upholding the supremacy of the majority culture. Hence, the government is not even following the usual practice of appointing at the helm of the board and commissions the trust worthy members from its party ranks. The outgoing chairman, Iqbal Singh Lalpura, had been a BJP candidate for the Punjab Legislative Assembly. His predecessor, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, was a prominent BJP leader and a member of the Union Cabinet.

The Modi-Amit Shah alliance is keeping the Minority Commission a scarecrow probably because of the fear that dissolving a statutory body will be challenged in the Supreme Court. ‘I have never fully understood the benefits of such committees. Even after the commission came into existence, the Muslim-Christian situation continued as before,’ said Tahir Mahmood, a renowned lawyer and former chairman, in his book. He minced no words saying that the Minority Commission is nothing more than a retirement center for officials who are loyal to the ruling party. The Sangha parivar government has put the Commission on the death row. Nothing else can be expected from the central government, which is raising the axe against the existence and identity of the largest minority by implementing the Citizenship Amendment Act and the Waqf Amendment Act.