SHILLONG: The Coordination Committee of Seng Khasi and Sein Raij has petitioned Governor Banwarilal Purohit to recognise people from the Khasi and Jaintia community professing the Niam Khasi and Niam Tre faiths as minorities in the State.
The Coordination Committee had been raising the matter with the State and Central governments since 2009 but to no avail.
The representatives of the Niam Khasi and Niam Tre faiths also stated that according to the
2011 Census, the percentage of the practitioners of the Niam Khasi and Niam Tre is 8.7 per cent of the State’s population which indicates that they are eligible to be declared as a “minority community based on religion”.
In a memorandum submitted to the governor, the representatives of the Niam Khasi and Niam Tre pointed out that due to the stand of the state government, “severe inequality” has been created.
“Benefits of schemes and educational grants that have been earmarked for minorities are being enjoyed by the majority population to the exclusion and detriment of the real minority population,” the Niam Khasi and Niam Tre representatives said.
The memorandum also stated that while those Khasis and Jaintias who have converted to Christianity are recognised as Schedule Tribes as well as minorities, those professing the indigenous faith are recognized only as Schedule Tribes inspite of them being the real minority in the State.
The Coordination Committee pointed out that under the Constitution of India in Article 29 (1) and 29 (2) any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same and no citizen shall be denied admission into any educational maintained by the state or receiving aid out of state funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them.
The representatives of the indigenous faith also stated that under the mandate of the Article 30 (1) of the Constitution of India, minorities are based on religion or language whereby the expression “minorities” based on religion, attracts three elements, namely-the existence of a minority, it being based on a religion and the basis being religion in the sense in which the word used in Article 30 (1).
The memorandum submitted to Purohit cited that after the passing of the National Commission for Minority (NCM) Act 1992 to look after the welfare of the minority communities, the Central Government by notification dated October 23, 1993 has declared Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) as minority communities on a nation-wide basis.
