comments on minorities

Minorities in J&K Should be Indentified very Carefully
Daya Sagar Sharma
Daya Sagar is a free-lancer scribe. He freely and critically covers social, education, economy, international relations, human rights, and subjects like J&K affairs/history of J&K. He has over 500 articles published in different newspapers over the last 20 years. He is an engineer by profession with a post grraduate degree earned in 1971. Professionally, he has a place as an engineer in J&K.Sagar is an original thinker. He is working in the cause of the social and human rights of the under privileged as a social worker for more than 25 years. He has headed for over six years social organization J&K Samaj Kalyan Kendra primarily working for the welfare of the DEAF (Hearing Handicap)/Handicapped in general.Sagar is Advisor to International Human Rights Protection Council, Jammu(J&K). He has remained President of J&K Confederation of Voluntary, Social and Charitable Organisations.Daya Sagar has the distinction of having promoted the idea of Social Audit through a voluntary group--Group Research and Audit on Social Programmes(GRASP INDIA).Daya Sagar belongs to a family that has seen the times of Sheikh Mohd Abdullah /pre 1953 days,times of Bakshi Gulam Mohammed/Shams u Din/G.M.Sadiq/Sayed Mir Qasim/ Sheikh Abdullah 1975 once again. His associate families had many bureaucrats, social activists, political leaders including senior Ministers and legislators.
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Daya Sagar Sharma
June 19, 2008
A wedge has already been hammered between the majority community of Kashmir Valley and the Hindu Migrants . A more disturbing recent development has been that a local organization of Jammu has recently resented by saying that when ever a leader like PM/ President/ Sonia visited J&K only packages and programmes for Kashmiri Pundit Migrants are given priority. It has been alleged that no programme or package is announced as regards employment or relief or special assistance to the people from Jammu Region. Though this resentment is from a small group, but surely it gives damaging signals of dangers ahead to the social unity of the people of J&K. Hence resentment by the people of Jammu region alleging special treatment to Kashmir Pundit migrants at the cost of the people of Jammu Region is surely a bad development.Painfully this not the end. And a new chapter is being written to further damage the future of J&K. It has been reported that an exercise has been done by J&K Government for setting up J&K Commission for Minorities and to also notify minorities for the purpose. It has been learnt that Kashmiri Pundits are being declared as a religious minority by J&K Government along with five other religious minorities declared by GOI in 1993. The Minority Communities notified by the Government of India in October 1993 as per the provisions of the National Commission for Minorities Act 1992 include only Muslims, Sikh, Christian, Parsi and Buddhist . These are religious minorities. These have been worked out on the basis of all India level population count. Even this list is irrational since it includes Sikhs but excludes faiths like the Jains. Government of India and department of Minority Affairs Government of India have started using this list for support and benefits to five all India population basis minorities even for local matters at the level States. Even the scholarships at school level are being extended on the basis of national Level minority count. This is totally wrong and irrational.. Incase the information as received takes shape then in J&K the religious minorities would be Muslims, Sikh, Christian, Parsi , Buddhist and Kashmiri Pundits. Does it mean that Kashmiri Pundits are not HINDU ? And in case Kashmiri Pundits are to be included as a sect or segment of Hindus then there are many other sects amongst Hindu who could fall under Minority category. This way in J&K the Khajuria Pundits (Purohit Brahmins ) too could be considered for Minority Status.The Khajuria Purohits had been once accorded backward class status in J&K. Even NMC had so illogically resolved on 9.3.2000 that Kashmiri Pandits should be declared a minority community at the National level by a notification by the Central Government along with Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsies and Buddists . It appears that some people have succeeded in exploiting this unfair resolve of NCM.I have been regularly summarizing my opinions on J&K . Among other things I have been opining that New Delhi does not appear to be that serious about settlement of J&K turmoil. The hurdles being posed by the constituents of UPA as well as the associates like CPM are frustrating for Shri Man Mohan Singh. Ofcourse Congress suffers of internal bickering as well. The migration of Kashmiri Pundits from the Kashmir Valley has been the severest of the blows to the monolithic structure of J&K. The two decade continuing migration also weakens the claims of Indian Government over J&K before the international community . The subject of return of Kashmiri Pundits to Kashmir Valley has been pushed deep into the ground. Through the projects like r construction of regular multistory housing colonies for Migrants at places like Jagti Nagrota the world community has been given the impressions that no possible return of Kashmiri Migrants is anticipated in the near future by GOI or the local J&K Government. Ghulam Nabi Azad Government should work seriously and refrain from pushing through more irrational proposals like declaring only Kashmiri Pundits as minority along with Muslims and Christians. J&K is already bleeding physically . Let us not bleed it socially. Otherwise. the resentment in the people of J&K will grow on some new fronts.J&K has its own Constitution . J&K must constitute a Minority Commission under its own Act and also notify the State level minorities. Such a commitment has already been made by Congress and PDP in their Common Minimum Programme . Also the Man Mohan Singh´s ( PM´s) New 15 Point Programme for minorities. The National Commission for Minorities (NCM ) in a special report made in April 1999 recommended to the Union Home Minister to accord State level minority status to the Hindus in J&K and some other States. But still in 2007-08 school level and professional level high value minority scholarships in J&K, Punjab, Nagaland, Sikkim etc have been unfairly distributed by GOI. It need be checked.
The common minimum programme for CONGRESS – PDP Coalition in J&K mentions that : - (i) all the three regions of the State have got religious minorities which face special problems (ii) J&K Government shall give full protection to the minorities and safeguard their rights (iii) a Minority Commission will be constituted in J&K . Similarly in the GUIDELINES for implementation of Prime Minister´s New 15 Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities it is stated that :- (i) the target group of the programme consists of the eligible sections among the minorities notified under Section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, ( viz, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) (ii) in States, where one of the minority communities notified under Section 2 (c) of the NC for Minorities Act, 1992 is , in fact, in majority, the earmarking of physical/financial targets under different schemes will be only for the other notified minorities. Such states have been mentioned as Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Mizoram , Nagaland and . Lakshadweep ( UT). It means that Christians in Mizoram , Muslims in J&K , Buddhist in Sikkim and Sikhs in Punjab should l not be covered under the targets / benefits at state level.Questions with regard to determination of a Minorities at State level / national have been raised by High Courts as well as the Supreme Court of India. .NMC in a meeting held on 9.3.2000 resolved that (i) the Kashmiri Pandits should be declared a minority community at the national level through a notification by the Central Government and (ii) the territorial jurisdiction of the NCM Act, 1992 should be extended to the State of J&K. The 3rd NCM visited J&K from 30th March to 1st April, 2000 . NMC conveyed some recommendations to the Union Government on 01.05.2000.The National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, came into force on May 17, 1992. The NCM Act 1992 does not lay down any criteria for nominating the minorities. Sub-section (c) of Section 2 simply says that "minority" for the purposes of this Act, means a community notified as such by the Central Government. Political parties ruling at Center have tried to take un due political advantage of this discretion. Government of India notified in October 1993 the minority communities as Muslims, Sikh, Christian, Parsi and Buddhist . Even the first NCM headed by Dr.Tahir Mahmood in its first meeting itself as held on 17th December 1996 recommended for recognizing the Jain community as minority . Later Dr. Mahmood in his briefing to the media on 25-11-98 had gone on record stating (i) So far, the Government has been content with National level minorities only (ii) but NCM had come out with the concept of State-level Minorities and (iii) NMC virtually recognised Hindus as a minority under jurisdiction of NCM in the States of Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and the Union territories of Lakshadweepa and Chandigarh." Although recognizing minorities does not so far fall with in the jurisdiction of NMC under the Act still the observation should not have been ignored by GOI. for also notifying Hindu as minority region or state wise. Even minority community and religious minority are surely two different things. The 3rd National Commission for Minorities (constituted vide notification dated 21st January, 2000 ) had asked in March 2000 some State Govt./UTs who had not set up State Minorities Commission to set up Minority Commission with a statutory status. The proposals for declaring only Kashmiri Pundits as Minority if go through ,as per the reports , would be a totally irrational exercise. Declaring only the Kashmiri Pundits as a Minority community at the National level/ State level along with Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Parsees and Sikhs would be as good as declaring that Kashmiri Pundits are not Hindu. (Daya Sagar is social activist and leading scribe on Kashmir affairs dayasagr@yahoo.co.uk)