My Letter to Dr. Najma Heptulla

My Letter to Dr. Najma Heptulla

18th December 2014

Dr. Najma Heptulla
Union Minister of Minority Affairs
Government of India
Paryavaran Bhawan, 11th floor
CGO Complex, Lodhi Road
NEW DELHI 110003

Dear Respected Minister,

Your Ministry is unconstitutional

I saw in today’s newspaper (DNA, Mumbai) a full page advertisement of your ministry titled “Ministry celebrates Minorities Rights Day”. The advertisement talks, among many other things, about development of cyber Madarsas in WB and bridging the gap between Madarsa education and the mainstream education.

Dear Madam Minister, if your Ministry considers only Muslims and Christians as minorities, then I question the very existence of your ministry under the constitution. The Constitution of India does not define the word ‘minority’ anywhere. It uses the word ‘minorities’ in Article 29, 30 and 350A&B. Enclosed is  a copy of a letter dated 31st October 2013, from the CPIO and the Under Secretary to the Govt. of India, New Delhi, in reply to a RTI query, which vindicates my stand.

Article 29 of our Constitution titled ‘Protection of interests of minorities’ says: “Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same”. The Article does not talk about ‘Muslims’ or ‘Christians’  or religion, but only about ‘distinct language, script or culture’. So, the question of ‘religious minority’ does not arise at all. 

Looking at the diversity of our nation (with different castes, creeds, languages, scripts, life styles, etc), the founding fathers of our Constitution have prudently inserted Article 29, to conserve citizens language, script and way of life when they go and settle in other states, with a view to strengthening national integration. 

However, this Article (29) meant for protecting the ‘distinct language, script or culture’ has been distorted to give it a religious (read communal) colour by the ‘secular’ dispensation. The Article is twisted to mean only Muslims and Christians, against the intention of our Constitution framers. The term ‘distinct language, script or culture’ is given a go by and the term ‘religious minorities’ has taken its place.

This distortion with vote bank considerations was initiated by the Nehruvian congress, which schemed Muslims/Christians against Hindus. Unfortunately it is being continued even today by Modiji’s government.

What I want to say is that the constitution of your ministry is unconstitutional (if it is catering to the needs of only Muslims and Christians). Since your above referred advertisement talks only about the development of Muslims, Waqf Board, etc. (and not about conserving the distinct language, script or culture), I must humbly say that you are perpetrating an unconstitutional act.

Further, Article 15 (1) of our constitution says: “The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them”. Hence, the National Commission for  Minorities Act, 1992, which discriminates and divides the citizen on the grounds of religion, is also unconstitutional. Irrespective of our religions, we are all citizens of India with equal rights and duties. This should be the cardinal principle, which is enshrined in our constitution.

I would therefore request for an explanation from your ministry as to the constitutionality of the existence of your ministry and its celebration of “Minorities Rights Day” which are all in violation of our constitution.

This letter will be published in my Monthly “Hindu Voice”. As and when I receive your reply, I will publish that too, in fairness to you.
Thank you.
Yours truly


P. Deivamuthu
Editor, Hindu Voice.


P.S:     For your information - I have also written to the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modiji         on this subject, on 17th November 2014, and am still awaiting a reply. Earlier, I             wrote to the Chief Justice of India, on 18th Nov. 2013, which just went unnoticed.


cc:    Shri Narendra Modiji
    Prime Minister of India
    7, Race Course Road
    New Delhi 110001