No Quotas for Religious Minorities in India, says Hindu Group
The important figure of a Hindu nationalist group said on Friday that Muslims and Christians should not be treated as minorities since an overwhelming majority of them are not foreigners.
The head of a Hindu nationalist group said on Friday that Muslims and Christians in India should not be treated as "minorities" since an overwhelming majority of them are natives.
"Their forefathers till a few years ago were Hindus only. It is the same blood which flowed in them and the rest of the Hindu society," said Mohan Bhagwat, the General Secretary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS - National Volunteer Corps)
The group says it has seen "disastrous consequences" for the parts of the country where the Hindu population has declined, saying that the "results are revealed in many ways," including "Separatist and terrorist activities."
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RSS has been accused of being hostile to religious minorities. In a recent incident in Kerala state, it is alleged that six theology students with Gospel for Asia (GFA) were forcibly abducted and beaten on Feb. 13 by activists of the RSS.
Top-level policy makers for the RSS and the powerful right-wing Sangh Parivar alliance of political parties in India met in Mangalore to discuss various issues, including quotas for religious minorities. The 3-day conference began March 11.
"Reservations," as quotas are known, began in 1950 when the caste system was outlawed. Their purpose was to rectify imbalances and discrimination of lower caste members of society, among them, "untouchables." Until now, religious minorities have not been included in the quotas.
In India, 81.3 percent are Hindus, 12 percent are Muslim and 1.9 percent are Christian.
Bhagwat argued that Christians and Muslims are not true minorities because they are not from outside the country.
"In reality, minorities are those who have been uprooted from their respective countries and take shelter in other countries. On that basis, our Jews and Parsis can be called minorities. But they refused to call themselves minorities and completely submerged their identities in the national mainstream of our country", remarked Bhagwat.
"The Supreme Court in several of its judgments has categorically stated that 'Hindu' does not denote any religion and it is a way and view of life encompassing several ways of worship. It is in the interest of the nation to put an early end to this concept of minorityism," said Bhagwat according to a transcript of the speech from the RSS website.
