The Anglo-Indian community has urged the Central government to grant them the status of a separate minority and to take steps to restore and extend the special reservation for nomination of the community’s members to Parliament and the State Assemblies.
In a memorandum to the Prime Minister, Augustine Roy Rozario, founder-president, Anglo-Indian Suburban Front, sought the status of a separate minority for the community by amending the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, as done for the Jain community in 2014, to protect the ethnic, linguistic, tradition and culture of the Anglo-Indian community.
He appealed for urgent steps to restore and extend the special reservation for the nomination of Anglo-Indian members to Parliament and the State Assemblies beyond January 26 for a period of 10 years.
This, he said, was shelved in the 126th Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2019, based on an “erroneous enumeration” done in the 2011 Census.
This was the only Constitutional guarantee left for the community to safeguard its interests, he said in the memorandum. Though the community comprises Christians, they have different ethnic and linguistic characteristics.
The memorandum pointed out the abolishing or denying of Constitutional rights to Anglo-Indians, including the abolishment of the 5% job reservation in 1960 and the stopping of educational grants.
Leaders of 11 major Anglo-Indian associations met the Union Law Minister on January 28 and submitted a memorandum clarifying that the population of the community was around 4 lakh and not 296 as mentioned in the 2011 Census. They sought his intervention in this issue, and on the proposal of extension of special reservation for Anglo-Indians but it was yet to be decided by the Central government, the memorandum said.