ALL INDIA JAIN MINORITY FORUM

Dear Madam,

May we ask you Madam, in all constitutional and secular conscience what is it that is holding back your UPA-led Government in which the President and the Prime Minister belong to the minority communities and forgive my pointing out that you too belong to the minority community from taking a decision on a straightforward matter that the Jain community is a religious minority community in India.

2. The National Commission for Minorities has twice recommended that the Jains should be declared a minority.

3. No less a person than first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru assured a Jain delegation in 1950 that the Jains are a distinct religious community under Article 25 of the Constitution. On 25th January, 1950, a Jain delegation was led to the Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and other central leaders to draw their attention to the anomalous position of the Jains under sub-clause (b) of Clause 2 of Article 25 and a petition was submitted. Jawaharlal Nehru clearly assured the delegation that the Jains are not Hindus and on 31-1-1950, his Principal Private Secretary, Mr.A.V. Pai wrote the following letter (a copy of the letter is enclosed) in reply to the petition:

 "This Article merely makes a definition. This definition by enforcing a specific consitutional arrangement circumscribes that rule. Likewise you will note that this mentions not only Jains but also Buddhists and Sikhs. It is clear that Buddhists are not Hindus and therefore there need be no apprehension that the Jains are designated as Hindus. There is no doubt that the Jains are a different religious community and this accepted position is in no way affected by the Constitution."

4. In his Allahabad speech on 3rd September,1949, Jawaharlal Nehru said:

  “No doubt India had a vast majority of Hindus, but they could not forget the fact that there are also minorities Moslems, Christians, Parsis and Jains. If India was understood as a “Hindu Rashtra “ it meant that the minorities were not cent per cent citizens of te country.” (The Statesman, 5-9-1949)

5. Jains have been counted as a major religious community along with the Muslim, Christian and Sikhs right from the first Census in 1873

6. Despite these incontrovertible constitutional, religious and demographic facts it is difficult to understand why the secular UPA-led Congress Government is fighting shy of taking a straightforward decision to issue notification that Jains are a national minority on par with Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Zoroastrians (Parsees).

7. In the face of such ambivalent attitude of a professedly secular Government is it any wonder that the diehard saffronite BJP Gujarat State Government has no secular scruples to pass a Bill classifying Jains and Buddhists as Hindus? One can understand a professedly anti-secular government like in Gujarat is impervious to Jain community but what about the Congress?

8. In the latest Supreme Court Appeal (Civil) 9595 of 2003: Petitioner: Committee of Management Kanya Junior High School Bal Vidya Mandir, Etah, U.P. Respondent: Sachiv, U.P. Basic Shiksha Parishad Allahabad, U.P. & Others, Date of Judgment: 21/08/2006

The Division Bench of S. B. SINHA & DALVEER BHANDARI and the Judgment delivered by Justice Dalveer Bhandai states

 “The Founding Fathers of the Constitution had unequivocally recognized the Jains as a minority community as is evident from the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly. While keeping in view that the Jains are a minority community, a representative of the Jain community was taken in the Minority Advisory Committee of the Constituent Assembly."

The judgment further states that “Jain religion indisputably is not a part of Hindu religion...”

9. Madam, the Congress spokesperson, Shri Abhishek Manu Singhvi, a Jain, is an eminent jurist. He is the son of a distinguished jurist and former diplomat Dr.L.M.Singhvi. I have enclosed a copy of Dr.Singhvi’s letter addressed to the Minority Affairs Minister, Shri A.R. Antulay wherein he has given all the evidence as to why the Jains should be declared a minority and the Government should issue a notification.

10. The international Jain community too has been petitioning the President and the Prime Minister for expeditious declaration of minority status for the Jains. I have enclosed copies of two such Petitions by Dr.Manu Chandaria, O.B.E. on behalf of the Kenyan Jain community for your informtion.

11. Politically too the time is very opportune for issuing a Notification by the Government of India declaring Jains as a minority because the Modi Government has created great resentment among the Jain community in Gujarat State by classifying them as Hindus.