Minority and majority issue has been holding the center-stage of social system for a long time. It had always remained a contentious issue and now the Supreme Court has asked the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir Government to sit together and take a considered decision on setting up of a minority commission for the state. If the Apex Court has asked for amicable way out, the Narendra Modi government dithered on the issue, the Mehbooba Mufti-led PDP-BJP Government had opposed creation of a minority commission in J and K, saying it was not the only State where minorities declared under the National Commission for Minorities Act were in majority and there was no such body. The Jammu and Kashmir Government’s stand as filed in the affidavit stated, “There are other states/UTs where such population (declared minorities under the NCM Act) is in majority. The situation is similar in Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Punjab and Lakshadweep.” Issue holds political importance as far as Jammu and Kashmir is considered with its own Constitution giving an edge under Article 370 which confers special status to it. Being a constitutional issue it has to be dealt with in the Legislature which is not going to happen in near future. In a State where nationally minorities are in a majority why they need a commission? Does the nationally classified majorities would get a redressal mechanism on the same pattern also? Earlier, the Jammu and Kashmir Government had said that the central Act was not applicable to the State and as such it did not have to set up a state-level minorities’ commission.
The real challenge we should focus on is not the interplay between religion and law. No religious conception can have a veto over the transformative promise of the Constitution. The challenge is crafting laws that in addition to being principled, are practical in the context of our State’s capacities and sociological realities. Law is effective only when society meets it at least half-way. The real reform debate should not be over one community’s virtues versus the others; it should be about closing the gap between the demands of freedom and equality and social practice.
