E-Paper
Definition of minority should be determined state-wise, demands seers’ body
On Monday, Swami Jitendranand Saraswati, the national general secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti, demanded that the definition of minority be determined state-by-state.
National general secretary of Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti Swami Jitendranand Saraswati on Monday demanded that the definition of minority should be determined state-wise. He also demanded that the minority status given to Muslims should be withdrawn. Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti is an umbrella body of Hindu seers.
He claimed that in 2002 the Apex court had said that for the purposes of Article 30 (which deals with the rights of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions), religious and linguistic minorities have to be considered state-wise. “Unfortunately, it has not happened so far,” Saraswati said.
“I wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard on March 23. The letter has already been sent,” he claimed. As per Saraswati, Hindus are the minority in eight states of the country due to which Hindus feel neglected. “Over 22 crore Muslims of Hindustan are minorities constitutionally whereas 5,000 ‘Yahudis’ (Jewish people) are not. This mockery of the constitutional system,” he wrote in the letter.
“Therefore, I request that the definition of the minority should be determined state-wise and Muslims should be excluded from the ambit of minority since the Muslims are the second-largest majority religious group in India. In India, population of Muslims is larger than two big countries, including Indonesia and Pakistan,” the letter read.
