Minority tag plea must get Parl approval: panel

If Lingayat wants to get minority status at the national level, the proposal has to get approval from Parliament, the National Minorities Commission said on Monday.

The National Minorities Commission Act, 1992, has to be amended by Parliament to include Lingayats as a minority community, George Kurian, vice president of the Commission, said here.

Several Hindu organisations from North Eastern states, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir had sought that Hindus should be treated as a minority in these states and the pleas were pending before the Commission, he said.

The United Nations resolutions in 1992 said a community cannot be treated a minority just because it is a minority in a particular region of a country, he said.

If Lingayats have to be treated as a minority, all states where they are residing, including Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, have to send recommendations seeking the separate religion tag for them, he said.

The National Minorities Commission will not come into the picture on granting minority status to any community unless the central government or court or Parliament refers the plea from a particular community to it, Kurian said.