No plans to accord minority status to linguistic minorities: Naqvi in LS

Naqvi said notifying minority communities within a state is the subject matter of the concerned state government

The government has no plans to accord minority status to linguistic minorities, the Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.

Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi stated this in a written reply.

To a query whether the government has any plan to give minority status to linguistic minorities, Naqvi replied, "No. Madam".

To another query, he said that the central government has declared six communities as minorities at national level under Section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Act, 1992.

The national level minority communities are Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains.

He said that notifying minority communities within a state is the subject matter of the concerned state government.

The minister was replying to multiple questions, including whether the National Minority Commission has considered to give minority status to the Hindus in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and some North East states.

To another query, the minister said that the central government has so far not granted minority status to the Jewish community.

As per information made available by the NCM, he said that the Maharashtra government has declared Jews as minority while West Bengal has not declared so.