New Delhi: The Union Minister for Minority Affairs, Kiren Rijiju Thursday pushed back against the sustained criticism that the Modi government has failed to protect minorities, citing the doubling of the ministry’s budget over the past 12 years. However, he also acknowledged gaps in scholarship delivery and slow digitisation of Waqf properties.
Speaking at the ministry’s “Reforms Utsav” at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi—the first such event held by any Union ministry to mark 12 years of Modi government—Rijiju said that the annual budget for minority affairs has grown from Rs 1,949 crore in 2014 to Rs 4,115 crore now, a 111 percent increase.
“Give me one example where in India, a person has left India because he is not safe due to his identity or his religious background,” Rijiju remarked, directly addressing the claim that minorities face persecution under Bharatiya Janata Party’s rule. “In other places, how many refugees have moved to Europe because of problems in their countries? But nobody has left India because of religious persecution.”
The remarks come against the backdrop of persistent criticism, domestically and internationally. For instance, Human Rights Watch, in its World Report 2024, had said that the BJP-led government’s policies had “led to increased violence against minorities, creating a pervasive environment of fear”.
Similarly, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom had said that year that religious freedom conditions in India had “continued to deteriorate”, citing the government’s failure to address communal violence affecting Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Dalits.
For the Opposition within the country, minority rights have been a central line of attack. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has repeatedly alleged the BJP is against Dalits, minorities and the poor. The INDIA bloc, formed ahead of 2024 general elections, had vowed to defeat what it called “hatred and violence being manufactured against minorities”. The BJP, in turn, has accused the Congress of minority appeasement and communal politics.
‘Don’t spread misinformation’
Rijiju attributed the gap between the government’s record and public perception to a one-sided media environment and a political campaign aimed at damaging the country’s image abroad. “Don’t lie, don’t spread misinformation,” he said Thursday, directly addressing the Opposition. “Criticise the government, be critical of government policies—no problem. But don’t lie.”
He said some political leaders were trying to weaken Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s position by tarnishing the country’s image abroad. “Some political leaders in India are supporting that campaign.”
On why the ministry has not done more to counter the sense of persecution felt within minority communities, Rijiju said, “Every day thousands and thousands of outreach programmes are being arranged by the government. But good news does not become news, and bad news becomes the big news.”
Ministry Secretary Srivatsa Krishna framed the problem as one of data versus perception. “Look at data. Is this government against minorities? When a road gets built, when training happens, is that being targeted at a majority community?”
He said the ministry’s third-term mandate was to “reform, perform, transform and inform”—and that the last part remained the hardest.
One of the ministry’s flagship programmes is PM Vikas, or Pradhan Mantri Virasat Ka Samvardhan—a skilling initiative targeted at minority youth for vocational training in trades ranging from tailoring to electronics repair.
Thursday’s event saw the ministry sign an agreement with EkStep Foundation, co-founded by Infosys co-founder and Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani, to use artificial intelligence to match PM Vikas graduates with jobs close to their homes, so that trainees do not have to migrate to distant cities for work.
The ministry also demonstrated AI chatbots, built with Gnani and Sarvam—two sovereign AI companies empanelled by the government—that can answer queries about ministry schemes in multiple languages. A full roll-out is expected within six months.
Challenges
On the Waqf portal—a centralised digital registry launched a year ago under the Waqf Amendment Act, 2025, requiring all state Waqf boards to upload details of properties held in religious trust—Rijiju said roughly 50-55 percent of properties had been uploaded so far.
Documentation gaps are slowing down progress, he said. “There are places where thousands of acres are shown on paper—on the ground, it’s not there. It’s a laborious exercise. It will happen.”
The Waqf Amendment Act—passed amid protests and criticism by Muslim groups and opposition parties, who called it an attack on minority property rights—remains one of the most contested legislative moves of the Modi government’s third term.
Additionally, on the issue of scholarships—the ministry’s largest budget item, covering pre-matric, post-matric and merit-cum-means support for students from Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Parsi communities—Rijiju admitted that the scheme had been hobbled by ongoing CBI cases across multiple states involving large-scale fraud in minority institution disbursals, where scholarships were drawn in the names of students who did not exist. “I wish the scholarship cases had not happened. Whatever has happened, I want it to reach closure quickly so we can move ahead,” he said, calling it an “unfinished task”.
Regarding the Munambam dispute in Kerala—where several Christian farming families on the coast near Kochi have been fighting eviction after state Waqf board claimed ownership of roughly 400 acres of land they have lived on and farmed for generations—Rijiju said the law ministry was examining the matter.
The case has become a flashpoint, with the state government and Waqf board on one side, and the farmers, backed by local BJP and Catholic church leaders, on the other. “Our purpose is that nobody should be treated with injustice or suffer due to mishandling by state authorities,” Rijiju said.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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