NEW DELHI: The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) received fewer complaints in the last five years under the Prime Ministership of Narendra Modi as compared to the previous four years when the Congress was in power, the government informed Parliament on Thursday.
“The number of complaints/incidents has reduced from 2,439 in 2011-12 to 1,871 in 2018-19 as per the NCM statistics,” Union Minister of Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said in response to a question posed by parliamentarian NK Premachandran, who had also asked if the government has state-wise data of attacks against minorities.
Premachandran had also sought to know whether it has come to the notice of the government that the attacks against the minorities are being reported from various parts of the country and what actions it had taken to prevent such attacks.
Naqvi said data regarding attacks against individual communities is not centrally maintained. “The responsibility of maintaining law and order, registration and prosecution of crimes against all citizens, including minorities, rests with the respective state governments and appropriate action as per law is taken.”
Regarding complaints received by the NCM, Naqvi said in 2011-2012, the Commission had received 2,439 complaints, and in 2012-2013, the number stood at 2,127. The next year the number stood at 2,637. The numbers were 1,995, 1,974 and 1,647 in 2014-2015, 2015-16 and 2016-2017. This reduced significantly to 1,497 in 2017-2018 but increased marginally to 1,871 in 2018-2019.
“The Central government has issued guidelines to deal with situations arising out of communal violence. The guidelines are reiterated while sending advisories with the objective of sensitisation of states/UTs,” said Naqvi.