New Delhi: The Chief Minister of Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, on Wednesday said that the state government is in favour of defining minority status to religious groups district-wise, instead of the existing norm of a nationwide declaration of minorities.
The chief minister informed the Assembly that the state government will try to be a party to an ongoing case at the Supreme Court filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, news agency PTI reported.
The ongoing case seeks directions for framing of guidelines to identify minorities at the state level.
“The government of Assam favours that minority definition should be changed district wise. However, it is under consideration of the Supreme Court and we will wait for the judgement,” a PTI report quoted Sarma as saying.
The central government is also in favour of defining the minority district and block-wise, considering their economic, educational, gender and other social parameters, the chief minister said.
Sarma added that the Centre recently submitted an affidavit before the Supreme Court in the case filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay stating that state governments can declare any religious or linguistic community, including Hindus, as a minority within the said state.
Sarma asserted that there is no definition of religious or linguistic minority in the Constitution. He said the Constitution only spoke about the rights of the two forms of minorities.
Sarma accepted Congress MLA Rakibul Hussain’s proposal that the state government should be a party to the case in the apex court. The chief minister said he spoke to Union Home Minister Amit Shah about this on Tuesday.
“I will try to make the government of Assam a party to the Ashwini Upadhyay case and present our views on defining the minorities district-wise. The case is on religious minority, not linguistic minority,” the chief minister added.
Sarma said he is not interested in defining linguistic minorities as it is a “very sensitive” issue.
On the issue of defining linguistic minorities, Sarma said that Assam is progressing in recent times, and that he does not want to open a faultline.
The chief minister said that the Centre had enacted the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 and notified the Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Sikhs and Buddhists as minorities and also Jains at a later stage.
“Citing the Constitution, the SC also said that religious and linguistic minorities are treated at par. The only problem is that there is no definition of linguistic minority or there is no threshold limit on how many people should speak a particular language to call them linguistic minorities,” the chief minister said.
Sarma claimed that the Supreme Court has stated that a community will be considered a minority if its language, culture and identity are threatened by another community.
“So in this scenario, we cannot directly call Muslims or Christians minorities. It will depend only on the situation and atmosphere of one state. It is an evolving situation,” Sarma added.
The chief minister gave examples from Assam, on the issue of linguistic minorities.
He said that Bengalis are not minorities in Barak valley and Dhubri district, but they are minorities in Dibrugarh and Upper Assam areas.
Sarma added that there has been a concept for the last 75 years that Muslims are the minorities. “This is challenged. In Assam, they are no longer minorities in several districts. Now, Hindus can also be minorities in one state depending on the situation and threat perception,” he further said.
Hindus comprise 61.47 per cent of Assam’s total population of 3.12 crore, according to the 2011 Census.
Muslims, who are a majority in several districts, constitute 34.22 per cent of the population. Christians form 3.74 per cent of the total number of people in the state, and the percentage of Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains is less than one per cent.
Sarma asserted that it is an evolving and dynamic situation. He said the state government is awaiting clarity on the subject from the Supreme Court.
“We hope that we will come to know who is the actual minority from the SC judgement,” the chief minister added.
Sarma claimed that Babasaheb Ambedkar had said the status of religious and linguistic minorities would change state-wise, but he had left it vague in the Constitution.
The chief minister was replying to an issue on the definition of minorities in Assam raised by BJP MLA Mrinal Saikia on March 21 during the ongoing Budget session.
Saikia, referring to ‘The Kashmir Files’, a Hindi film on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley in 1990, had asked who is the minority in today’s time.
(With Inputs from PTI)