New Delhi, DMK Member of Rajya Sabha P Wilson on Wednesday asked the government to give constitutional status to the National Commission for Minorities, strengthen its investigative and enforcement powers to better protect the interests of minority communities.
DMK members urged the government to give constitutional status to the Minorities CommissionRaising the issue during zero hour in the House, Wilson thanked the Speaker for allowing him to speak on a matter that goes with the spirit of the Constitution.
“In recent years, India has witnessed an alarming rise in targeted violence against minority communities. Mob lynchings, attacks on priests, priests, systematic vandalism of churches and mosques,” he says and cites data to support his argument.
He also said that anti-conversion laws are increasingly being misused in some states to file multiple FIRs, even against minors.
People are arrested and kept in jail for months, only to be released later, the DMK MP said.
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Since 2020, he said nearly 400 cases have been registered under the anti-conversion law resulting in 1,200 arrests.
“They strike at the very heart of a constitutional promise of equality, secularism and religious freedom. And at a time when minorities need institutional protection the most, the National Minorities Commission, the body that acts as the watchdog of justice, has been reduced to an empty office building,” he said.
He pointed out that all the posts of chairperson, vice chairperson and other members are vacant.
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The DMK MP also said that these vacancies have continued for more than 10 months and some of them for more than 3 years.
“It sends a chilling message that minority constitutional protections can be notified indefinitely,” he added.
He also said that in 2017-18, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment had described the commission as the most ineffective in tackling discrimination, marginalization and violence and recommended constitutional status to the National Commission for Minorities without delay.
Wilson said its powers are currently advisory only. He also said a former chairperson called the commission a toothless tiger because it only had advisory powers.
“After nearly a decade, instead of strengthening the commission, the government has allowed it to completely collapse. I request the honorable minister, the minister for minority affairs, to immediately fill up the vacancies in the commission,” he said.
DMK members urged the central government to amend both the Constitution of India and the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 to make it a constitutional body.
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He asked the government to define atrocities against minorities as a criminal offense and to issue directives to the commission to register cases, strengthen its investigative and enforcement powers to better protect the interests of minority communities.
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