‘Lingayat faith tag plea rejected’

The Centre on Wednesday informed the Lok Sabha that it had rejected the state's request to grant minority religion status to Lingayats and Veerashaivas.

Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said in a written reply that the Centre was not planning to enlist more communities in the country under the minority status.

“The proposal was examined in depth in consultation with Ministry of Home Affairs and the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), an apex organisation constituted under NCM Act, 1992, for advising the government on minority issues. The request has not been acceded to,” he informed.

Answering a question from AIADMK member R Parthipan on what criteria were followed to include new communities under minority status, the minister said the Central government notifies the minority communities under Section 2(c) of the NCM Act, 1992.

“However for deciding any community as minority community, advice of various central ministries/departments, National Commission for Minorities, other concerned organisations, demographical positions, views of the stakeholders are taken into consideration,” he said.