Badal criticises Centre's move to deprive minorities of their status

Chandigarh, May 12 (UNI) Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today took strong exception to the reported move of the Union Government to tamper with the Constitution in order to "deprive" minorities of their legitimate status in the country.

In a statement here, he said that doing away with the concept of national minorities and replacing it with state-wise criterion would play havoc with the basic trust and understanding on which our national polity is based.

"The only way to justify this highly provocative move was to declare the states as entirely autonomous federal provinces with the Centre having no say in any of the domestic areas", he said.

Only if the states enjoy complete autonomy can one consider them as independent units for the purpose of determining and bestowing the status of minorities on the concerned groups, he added.

"So long as we live in a single country, we can only talk about minorities in the country on the whole", said Mr badal, adding that it was absurd even to talk of determination of minority status at the state level.

The move, he said, would actually mean that the Sikhs would not be a minority even in Punjab and all the protection and safeguards enjoyed by them as a national minority would go, he aaded. "This can have very implications for the cause of national unity which is based on a constitutional safeguards for different religious, linguistic and regional groups", the Chief Minister said.

Describing the reported move as extremely "ill-conceived" and "flawed in concept", Mr Badal said that would also be a serious violation of the basic structure of the constitution which recognizes India as a federal polity.

"It is absurd even to suggest that the Sikhs would be deemed a majority in a state and for that reason alone be deprived of all the constitutional safeguards throughout the country", he said. In addition, the move will have a bearing on a variety of critical areas such as education and culture, he added.

The Chief Minister appealed to the Union government to reconsider this "highly irresponsible and inflammable move".

UNI