Why Anglo-Indian community is not on Modi's priority list

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA government at the Centre is already suffering from the perception of not being very pro-active towards the minority communities. One issue which puts a seal over this perception is the fact that even more than one year after the Narendra Modi government came into power on May 26, 2014, it has not yet nominated two members of the Anglo-Indian community in the Lok Sabha.

It is for the first time that the process has taken so long. Earlier, the members of the community would be nominated within a few days or months of the government coming to power. For instance, Ingrid Mcleod and Charles Dias were nominated on June 1, 2009 during UPA-2 and Ingrid Mcleod and Francis Fanthome were nominated on May 17, 2004 during UPA-1. Beatrix D'Souza and Denzil B Atkinson were nominated by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government on October 10, 1999.

How is it being viewed? The All India Anglo-Indian Association has already dubbed it as “injustice” to the minority communities and “abuse” of Indian Constitution. Injustice because out of the five-year term of an MP, one year has already elapsed. With it has lapsed one year of government funds to carry out developmental works for the community. And abuse because article 331 of the Constitution stipulates that the President may, if he is of opinion that the Anglo-Indian community is not adequately represented in the Lok Sabha, nominate not more than two members of that community to the house.

The association has already petitioned President Pranab Mukherjee, Modi, home minister Rajnath Singh, minority affairs minister Najma Heptulla and BJP president Amit Shah. Heptulla is learnt to have written to the prime minister also after a delegation of the association met her in March.

The association feels the Anglo-Indian community is not on the priority list of the government because with four lakh people, they constitute just 0.032 per cent of the total population of the country. They neither form a significant vote bank nor are in a position to swing elections in favour of any BJP candidate.

A minister in the Modi government told this writer that the inquiry process for nominating the two members was a lengthy one. However, he assured that the nomination should be done within a month.

Within a month? There are reasons to believe that the minister has spoken in right earnest and the nominations would certainly be made within a month because that coincides with the monsoon session of the Parliament. And here comes the utility of the Anglo-Indian community. With the government in a minority in the Rajya Sabha, it is likely to convene a joint session of Parliament for the passage of controversial legislations like the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill and the Goods and Services Tax Bill. As each and every vote will count then, the nomination of the Anglo-Indian community members can well be expected by then.

This raises another issue. The BJP is in search of loyal candidates who will indeed vote for the government when a whip is issued for the passage of crucial Bills. The low priority may be one of the matters but the difficulty in finding suitable candidates is another.

Incidents like church attacks in the national capital and elsewhere have already maligned the image of the Modi government even though no accused has been found to be remotely associated with the BJP or the fringe elements of the Sangh Parivar. Modi is striving to build the image of a secular prime minister. Therefore, he should be more careful in addressing issues related to the minorities if he really has to obliterate the pro-Hindutva persona.