National Commission for Minorities (NCM) currently has just one member and the remaining six posts are vacant. Five positions are vacant since May while one is vacant since 25 October when the vice-chairman, Manjit Singh Rai, retired, reported The Indian Express.
The panel is mandated to have seven members, including a chairperson and vice-chairperson, with a member each from the Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi and Jain communities.
Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, “There has been some delay in filling the vacancies because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the process is underway.”
This, however, isn’t the first time that vacancies haven’t been filled in the NCM- in 2017, all seven posts remained empty for over two months. The NDA government faced criticism for not filling vacancies in the commissions for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backward classes and minorities. The same year, the Delhi High Court sought the Centre’s response on a plea against the government’s “inaction” in clearing appointments to the NCM.
“It is true that the Commission, even with all its members, is not always effective. But it is nevertheless a representation for minorities and an important instrumentality of the government in a democracy that gives them agency, and when the NCM lies vacant, they feel excluded,” ” said Wajahat Habibullah, who was the NCM chairperson in 2011-2014.
The NCM is in charge of ensuring that the Prime Minister’s 15-point programme is implemented and the programmes for minority communities are actually functioning, he added.
Habibullah raises concern on NCM’s inaction in cases related to the persecution of Muslim and other minority communities. “There is clear targeting of a particular minority in Uttar Pradesh for instance, but the Commission hasn’t said a word about it so far, which is shocking,’’ he said.
Former NCM members said there has been a shift in the kind of members appointed to the body. While past appointments included former chief justices, civil servants, academicians etc, the recent appointees were mostly “social activists” with links to the BJP, they said.
Related
Rushda Fathima Khan is the Staff Reporter for The Cognate.
